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STATEMENT 



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BR. MAJ. GEN. O. O. HOWARD 

BEFORE THE 

COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION AND LABOR 

IN DEFENSE AGAINST THE CHARGES PRESENTED BY 

HON. FERNANDO WOOD, 

AND 
\ 

Argument of Edgar Ketchum, Esq., 

OF COUNSEL FOR GEN. HOWARD IN SUMMING UP THE CASE UPON 
THE TESTIMONY BEFORE THE COMMITTEE. 



■ »♦» 



. NEW YORK: 
Bradstreet Press, 18 Beekman Street, 
1870. 






In exca. 
A ofO. Pub. Lib, 



tJA 7 Mfitt! 






'« 



GENERAL HOWARD'S STATEMENT. 



The Hon. Fernando Wood, introducing his charges against me, 
used these words : 

" That General Howard had been guilty of malversation and dere- 
liction of duty on the following points : 

" First, That he has taken from the appropriations made for, and 
the receipts of, that bureau, more than five hundred thousand dollars, 
improperly and without authority of law, for the Howard University, 
hospital, and lands." m *->. 

In reply, I do not deny the amount alleged to have been appro- 
priated to the Howard University, including all the buildings con- 
structed therewith, the hospital, with its several wards and out-build- 
ings, and the lands, so far as the indirect aid in their purchase and 
the necessary grading and sewerage connected with the 'structures 
are concerned. 

But I do deny that this amount, or any amount whatever, with my 
knowledge and consent, has been expended "improperly and without 
authority of law. v 

A portion of this money has been expended in the structures them» 
selves. 

By reference to the appropriation act, approved March 2, 1867, it 
will be seen that Congress appropriated $500,000 to the rental, re- 
pairs, and construction of buildings for the education of the people 
committed to my charge, and for asylums ; this was for the fiscal 
year ending June 30, 1868. Subsequently, by act of Congress of July, 
1868, all unexpended balances in the hands of the Commissioner not 
required for the legitimate purposes of the bureau are devoted to 
the work of education, according, to the laws already existing. These 
laws, and the authorized regulations of the bureau under them, di- 
rected the educational aid from the regular appropriation to rental, 
repairs, and construction, the transportation of teachers, and supplies 
for the schools, also to the payment Of superintendents, clerks, and 
agents, engaged in the school work. This method of expenditure 
was set forth in my request for the appropriation, and is evidently 
intended by the wording of the act of July, 1868 (section 2). 

The freedmen's hospital in this District, including the main 
structure, all the wards and necessary outbuildings, was demanded 
in the reduction of the number of hospitals in different parts of the 
country. It was necessary to make provision somewhere for the aged, 
the infirm, the deranged, and the imbecile that were already on our 
hands, for whom it was impossible to make provision in the different 
States. "Very many came from Virginia, Freedmen's Village, for ex- 
ample, where there were none to take care of them. The former 
system of providing for these indigent people in families became im- 



k STATEMENT OF GENERAL HOWARD. 

practicable, especially where large numbers of the inhabitants had 
lost their property by the war. Families to which some of the freed 
people belonged had become scattered or extinct, and where this was 
not the case I had no power of compulsion. I could not send a de- 
crepit or imbecile freedman to a family that refused to receive him. 

Upon breaking up the hospital at Louisville, Kentucky, neither 
the State nor the city could be induced to take charge of the poor 
inmates, and I was obliged to bring many of them here. In my 
judgment the hospital, or, more accurately, the asylum for aged and 
infirm freedmen, became an absolute necessity. Possibly the " im- 
properly and without authority of law" may have been asserted in 
the charge because the government did not itself hold the land upon 
which these buildings were erected. There was no other method of 
holding land than by trustees. The act of Congress, approved March 
2, 1867, which provides that the Commissioner may transfer sums of 
money from the "Freedmen's and Refugees' fund" to institutions 
incorporated shows a recognition of the organizations which may 
properly execute the trusts conferred by the several laws bearing 
upon the subject of education. There was no direct method of hold- 
ing land by the government, either for educational buildings or 
asylums, provided for in the law itself; therefore I chose two methods 
that I deemed safe and right: one to use corporate bodies that from 
their charters could properly receive and execute the trusts imposed, 
and the other by an order, or orders, to impose special trusts upon 
selected trustees to carry out the object of an appropriation, or to aid 
me in the exercise of existing discretionary power. The latter method 
has been employed in very few cases indeed, and only when some 
pressing necessity seemed to me to render this course unavoidable. 

The trustees of Howard University had their powers conferred 
by Congress, and willingly undertook, not only the work of education 
pertaining to the classes especially committed to my charge, but 
offered me the advantage of a portion of their land for the asylum. 
Certainly the University in its medical department receives benefits 
from the asylum, and will do so as long as it shall continue. Yet I 
can conceive of no better advantages, none more economical, than are 
here afforded to me as Commissioner of the bureau for its purposes. 

It is found by the testimony that a portion of the $500,000 named 
was transferred to the University for its use. This came from the 
" Freedmen's and Refugees' fund" and was therefore in exact accord- 
ance with the act referred to above (act of March 2, 1867). 

If it be claimed that the University charter does not call for the 
education of refugees and freedmen, or their children, the answer is, 
that its charter is not limited ; that in the reception of all the funds 
derived from the government the University corporation formally 
accepted the conditions expressed in the order of transfer and in the 
contracts for building. The deeds of transfer of the buildings also 
expressly demand and secure the fulfillment of this important condition. 

The uniform interpretation of the law with reference to " Refugees' 
and hreedmen's fund" has been, as it was doubtless originally in- 
tended, to comprehend any incorporated institutions that would obli- 
gate themselves faithfully to educate refugees and freedmen and 
their children. 



STATEMENT OF GENERAL HOWARD. O 

The preliminary meetings of the trustees of the Howard Univer- 
sity show beyond question that the original design was the education 
of freedmen and their descendants ; and the classes in the several 
departments, from its beginning till now, show that that design has 
been carried into execution — -the charter is not limited, but was in- 
tended to comprehend this object. 

Do I not, then, rightly claim that the appropriation made for, and 
the receipts of the bureau which have been devoted to the Howard 
University, hospital, and lands, have been used properly and with 
express authority of law ? 

" Second, That portions of the land alleged to have been sold for 
the benefit of the Howard University fund were disposed of improp- 
erly to members of his own family and officers of his staff." 

The second point is not true. No members of my family nor 
officers of my staff have owned any of the land. Some officers of 
the bureau have purchased land, as did other people, at the market 
price, and I have never in any way sought to influence or control the 
sales in their favor. 

" Third, That bonds issued in aid of the First Congregational 
Church of the city of Washington were taken in payment for a por- 
tion of this land, which have not yet been redeemed or paid, nor 
have they been returned in his official accounts as such." 

The third point is not true ; certainly I have no knowledge of any 
such transaction. If it were true it would in no way apply to me, 
for I could not officially account to the government for the property 
of the University. 

"Fourth, That the University building and hospital were built of 
patent brick furnished by the American Building-Block Company ; 
in which General Howard, Charles Howard, General E. Whittlesey, 
and J. W. Alvord, all attached to the bureau, were interested as 
stockholders." 

The fourth point, so far as my interest in the Washington Building- 
Block Company is concerned, is not true. I was in the company, 
but left it before commencing to build the structures of the Univer- 
sity of the material in question. 

The other gentlemen named remained in the company, as I firmly 
believe, with no intention of wrong-doing. 

The operation in the manufacture gave employment to a large 
number of colored men that were then out of employment. The 
specimen material seemed excellent, and they believed they were 
doing a good work by this investment of their means with no very 
considerable prospect of profit at the low price at which they pro- 
posed to furnish the block. The business head and manager, as well 
as the employes at the yard, had no government position. As now 
appears, no dividend was ever declared, and these gentlemen have 
realized nothing thus far from their investment. 

" Fifth, That the specifications for the construction of those build- 
ings provided that the material used in their erection should be 
taken from the brick made by this company, thus preventing com- 
petition, and securing the use of that brick, and no other, for that 
purpose." 

The fifth point is a mistake. By reference to the University, 



D STATEMENT OF GENERAL HOWARD. 

hospital, and dormitory contracts it will be seen the specifications were 
confined to the class of material, viz. : " American building-block," 
not to the company, as specifications always do provide for specific 
material in any given building. The competition, it is true, was not 
great, because this company could make block for less than it could 
be made and transported from New York and Philadelphia, where 
were the nearest works of manufacture. 

The company never put the block or its heavier material, e. g. the 
corner blocks, water-table, &c, at as high prices as at New York. I 
was much pleased with the building-block; the recommendations 
were abundant from our first scientific men and experts; the speci- 
mens were handsome, those that had age were very fine. Our trus- 
tees, without any exception, approved of the material and asked for 
its use by a unanimous resolution. 

The University and dormitory stand so firmly that experts and ex- 
perienced builders express complete confidence in their safety and 
durability. I have had no mercenary motive whatever in the use of 
this patent block. 

"Sixth., That the brick so used was unfit and nearly worthless; 
parts of the building have fallen down in consequence, and other 
parts have since been repaired and rebuilt, at an expense of $13,000." 

The sixth point will certainly not apply to the University nor to 
the dormitory, and I doubt not a different report would have been 
made even of the hospital building had it not been subjected to so 
unfavorable conditions in building— to frost, thaw, and heavy rain. 

It will be observed that the University, including all that was 
added to perfect the structures and the present hospital building, 
including the loss, compare most favorably in point of cost with any 
other large buildings in this city or elsewhere. 

"Seventh, That by Ins consent and knowledge lumber belonging 
to the government was used by this company and appropriated to its 
own benefit, being resold to its employes." 

The seventh point is far from being true. The University did lease 
an old building or buildings to the company (Coyle's old sand lease 
of one acre became the company's), and 'the University repaired these 
buildings; I never authorized the issuing of lumber to the Building- 
Block Company. 

Once an officer said to me that some lumber had been improperly 
taken to the works, and I told him to demand payment of the com- 
pany if this was true, as has been shown in the testimonyof Major Brown. 

"Eighth, That he pays rent to the Howard University from the 
funds of the bureau for the privilege of a headquarters." 

The eighth point is true. I have rented most of one floor and part) 
of another for the purposes of the bureau since the building became 
the property of the University, not before. When in town the build-] 
ings I was obliged to rent cost much more, and the pay went to private 
parties, while now the money goes to pay the teachers of the childre 
of freedmen. In this way we have economy to the government an 
have secured good accommodations for the bureau work. 

" Ninth, That he draws three salaries, viz. : one as a brigadier gen 
eral in the United States army, another as Commissioner of th 
Freedmen's Bureau, and a third as head of the Howard University." 



STATEMENT OF GENERAL HOWARD. * 

The ninth point is in no sense true. The salary of the president, 
which is fixed by the recorded resolution, I have never drawn. To 
draw the salaries of Commissioner and of my rank in the army at the 
same time would not be possible. I have never attempted it. I have 
drawn my army pay and allowances, which are less than I would have 
received commanding a department. The sum fixed by law for the 
Commissioner has been saved. 

u Tenth, That he has paid from the funds of the bureau over 
|40,000 for the construction of the First Congregational Church in 
this city, taking the church bonds in return, which he has either 
returned in his accounts as cash on hand or sent South for the pur- 
poses of the bureau." 

The tenth point is surely not sustained by facts. The treasurer 
and agent of the University and the treasurer of the incorporated 
Normal School at Richmond, Va., did invest in the notes or bonds, 
secured by deed of trust upon the church property, but not by my 
orders or instructions. The security is good, and I have no doubt of 
the propriety of this investment. The institutions have suffered no 
loss by it, and it is intended by all parties concerned they shall not. 

"Eleventh, He has advanced a large sum from the funds of the 
bureau to the Young Men's Christian Association of this city, taking 
their bonds in payment, which have been sent to Tennessee to help 
the Freedmen's schools in that State." 

The eleventh point is not true at all. I have only given my pri- 
vate subscription to the Young Men's Christian Association, and 
never directly or indirectly any government funds whatever. I 
did sell, as has been shown in evidence, $1,500 of the Young Men's 
Christian Association stock N that I held, to a corporate body, the 
Fisk University, guaranteeing it at par, and have since fulfilled my 
guarantee. 

" Twelfth, That he caused or knowingly allowed lands in this city, 
owned by an officer of the bureau, to be transferred to a freedmen's 
school in North Carolina, the officer taking the money appropriated 
for that school and the school the lands in this city ; thus perpe- 
trating a fraud both upon the government and the freedmen." 

The twelfth point gives, as I view it, a false impression. Surely 
no officer of the bureau, other than myself, has ever, to my knowl- 
edge, transferred any lands to any freedmen's school. If there is 
blame in the actual transaction doubtless referred to in this point 
I alone must bear it. I received through J. #L McKim, Secretary of 
the Freedmen's Union Commission from England, some money to 
invest in land for freedmen, or in some agricultural operation 
connected with them. It was when the black men were not so 
popular as they are now, and lots could not be purchased by those 
in need except for cash. Through Dr. J. M. Thompson I learned 
that I could obtain a square or half square of land from Moses 
Kelly, Esq., by the payment of part cash and the rest in mortgage 
notes with deferred payments. I wrote to Mr. McKim and asked if 
I had not better invest the money (about $1,000) in this land, and 
sell lots on time to the freedmen, and as the money came in reinvest 
it for a similar purpose. He expressed his cordial approbation of my 
plan. 



J STATEMENT OF GENERAL HOWARD. 

The Virginia avenue, which passes, touching the land on the north, 
had an appropriation for completion. This appropriation was not 
enough for the work, and proper access to the land was delayed. I 
therefore resolved to sell it as a whole. I gave five cents per square 
foot. At the same price I offered two thirds of the square border- 
ing on Virginia avenue to the Saint Augustine Normal Institute in 
North Carolina, for the investment of any fund that was not imme- 
diately needed. Land on the next street east was at the time held 
at thirty cents. The Virginia avenue was in process of completion, 
and the new railroad (Baltimore and Potomac) to pass near it. The 
transfer of the land was agreed to and made, and the money derived 
from it used to take up the notes. The original fund was again 
invested for the agricultural department of the University, in which 
students without means are working for support. If it be asked 
where the Saint Augustine Institute received its money for this 
investment, I answer it was from the dividend of that raised from 
the Barry farm. Since the property has belonged to the Saint 
Augustine Institute I have allowed it to be graded, especially and 
mainly to give work to destitute freedmen and also to enhance the 
value of the property. The grading gave work and bread to a large 
number of industrious colored people after the extreme hardship and 
destitution of the winter, during the spring and summer following. 
The most of them were purchasers of lots on Barry farm, of which I 
will speak under the next point. 

" Thirteenth, That he was interested in the purchase of a farm of 
about three hundred acres, near the lunatic asylum in this county, 
for which the public funds and other property of the government 
were used. Buildings were erected thereon built of lumber belong- 
ing to the government and then let or sold to freedmen at exorbitant 
prices ; and that he and his brother Charles Howard were personally 
interested in this transaction as a private pecuniary speculation." 

The thirteenth point I regard a misstatement, containing a charge 
having no foundation in fact. 

I will give a brief history of the " Barry farm" transactions. Let 
me first present the order which is already in evidence, viz. : 

War Department, 
Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands, 

Washington, April 23, 1867. 

SPECIAL ORDERS, { 

No. 61. j 

II. Brevet Brigadier General George W. Balloch, Chief Disbursing 
Officer of this Bureau, will transfer the sum of fifty-two thousand 
($52,000) dollars to a Board of Trustees, consisting of S. C. Pomeroy, 
J. R. Elvans, and 0. 0. Howard ; this amount to be held in trust by 
them for the benefit of three normal collegiate institutions or uni- 
versities, embracing the education of Refugees and Freedmen ; said 
institutions being incorporated, or as soon as they shall be regularly 
incorporated ; one located in the District of Columbia, one in the 
State of Virginia, and the third in the State of North Carolina. The 
said Trustees may invest the said fifty-two thousand ($52,000) dollars 



STATEMENT OF GENERAL HOWARD. 9 

in land, with a view of relieving the immediate necessities of a class 
of poor colored people in the District of Columbia, by rental, by sale, 
or in such other way as their judgment shall direct for this purpose, 
provided all proceeds, interest, or moneys received for rental or sale 
over and above necessary expenses shall be annually transferred to 
the said three institutions, and in all cases to be divided equally 
between them. 

By order of Major General 0. 0. Howard, Commissioner. 
A. P. Ketchum, A. A. A. General. 

This order explains itself. 

Now with regard to a few facts that constrained me to the course 
I pursued. 

A gentleman living on Meridian Hill, prior to the issuing of the 
above order, had a long row of government sheds used for barracks 
or hospital purposes during the war, situated on lands valued at 
$1,500 an acre. In these buildings refugee colored people had taken 
up their residence from all quarters. Some were cultivating small 
gardens, and some had no employment. They could not possibly pay 
him rental, and he was constrained by circumstances to sell his land. 
The colored people were very poor and destitute and he disliked to 
turn them off, so that he did what hundreds of others have done in 
perplexity — came to the Commissioner of the Freedmen's Bureau, and 
asked him what could be done. I said to this gentleman that there 
were thousands in the same condition, and I did not know what 
could be done. I was charged with "feeding people in idleness," 
and I must not make pauper^ of them. I got into the carriage with 
him, and we rode to the old buildings. I called out all the men I 
could find (some of them were quite intelligent) and talked with 
them ; asked them what they wanted to enable them to become self- 
supporting. Several answered "land." They realized that they 
could nut stay long where they were. I said, Now if I could manage 
to secure you a homestead, say an acre of land apiece near the city, 
might I rely upon it that you would work and repay the outlay ? 
Some promised earnestly to do so, and recieved aid as I will explain — 
others hung their heads and said nothing. Now this is a description 
of quite a number of communities at that time in Washington and 
its vicinity. In meditating upon this condition of things, and this 
pressing necessity, I thought it would be well to take a portion of 
the " Freedmen's and Refugees' Fund," which had been accumulating 
mainly from the rental of abandoned property, and which I had 
already devoted in my discretion to educational purposes, and pur- 
chase a farm as near Washington as possible, divide it up into acre 
lots, give lumber enough for small and comfortable tenements, and 
sell to the poor freedmen on time, on a bond to be followed by a deed 
in fee as soon as the terms of the bond should be fulfilled. 

I had great difficulty at that time in finding anybody who would 
sell, and had, finally, to purchase without being known in the matter 
or without having the object of the purchase revealed. After select- 
ing trustees and taking legal advice, the purchase was made and the 
plan was carried into execution. 



10 STATEMENT OF GENERAL HOWARD. 

The following tabular statement will exhibit the condition of the 
fund when I turned it over to my successor: 

1. Original purchase money $52,000 00 

2. Expended for roads, streets, and surveys 7,517 95 

3. Lumber for houses 16,407 60 

Total $75,925 55 

Amount returned to fund while I was Treasurer and appro- 
priated as per account current $31,178 12 

Amount on hand turned over to John A. Cole, my suc- 
cessor as Treasurer 10,081 41 

Unsold lots valued at 12,426 76 

Amount due on contracts April 17, 1869 28,783 71 

Total $82 470 00 

Balance in favor of fund $6,544 45 

This balance is sufficient to cover the interest on the money used 
for the time invested. Now, as to the character and use of this fund : 
It can not be assumed that the "Barry farm " fund is public money 
of the United States if the original order of expenditure was in 
accordance with law — -it became at once a fund held in trust for the 
three institutions designated by the trustees. Therefore an invest- 
ment of the fund in accordance with the request of the official 
representatives of these institutions became proper after the transfer 
to them of any sum in the hands of the treasurer. 

The Normal School at Raleigh, N. C, invested a portion of its 
dividend in the two thirds of square No. 1025, as explained under the 
last point. The Normal School at Richmond, Va., invested its first 
dividend in the mortgage notes or bonds of the First Congregational 
Church. 

The latter investment was a good one ; the former, the land is 
worth three or four times its cost, and the officers of the school now 
highly value their investment. I parted with this land at precisely 
the same figure that was given, viz. : five cents per square foot, except 
that a small alley was reckoned out in the purchase and reckoned in 
at the sale— not affording enough gain to cover interest on the notes, 
the surveys, and other expenditures. 

Not regarding the fund as belonging to the United States, I did 
not act as a United States disbursing officer, but deposited it, as 
instructed by the trustees, in the Freedmen's Savings Bank, and 
invested it from time to time in United States bonds and such other 
securities as the trustees approved, in this way increasing the fund 
by the interest till the dividend should be made. I was not, as is 
charged, interested privately in the purchase of this farm; have not 
made a dollar of gain by it in the purchase and sale of lots ; nor has 
my brother or myself been interested in the purchase of lumber as a 
private pecuniary speculation, and never, to my knowledge, was there 
a single instance of exorbitant charge for the lumber furnished to 
the freedmen. I never heard of a complaint of that to any officer or 
agent who came in contact with the settlers. 

" Fourteenth, He has discharged the duties of the office of Commis- 
sioner of the bureau with extravagance, negligence, and in the 
interests of himself and family and intimate friends." 



STATEMENT OF GENERAL HOWARD. 11 

This is not true. Extravagance and negligence on rny part can 
not be proved. I have labored hard, with fidelity and success—as the 
results accomplished will show— in securing the reward of iobor to 
freeclmen ; establishing justice ; providing for the poor without pau- 
perizing them; caring for the helpless indigent, the sick and orphan 
children in asylums, leaving but one asylum as a legacy to the 
government ; and more than all, in cooperating, according to the 
requirements of law, with benevolent and educational associations — 
upward of thirty in number — so as to more than equal the appro- 
priations of the government in the establishment of schools of every 
description from the primary to the University. 

These schools have been more than two thousand, with pupils at 
times numbering two hundred and fifty thousand. 

A careful, dispassionate survey of my work and that of the offi- 
cers and agents who have aided me, instead of intently gazing at the 
flaws which every human enterprise must present, will completely 
vindicate me from this charge. 

The only member of my family who has ever had any connection 
with the bureau is General 0. H. Howard, my brother, and he came 
into it not at my request, but was first detailed by the War Depart- 
ment, at General Saxton's request, in South Carolina. I consulted 
not his but what I believed to be the public interest in his retention. 
For according to my deliberate conviction his individual interest 
would have been better subserved by a discharge long before it took 
place ; and as to intimate friends, permit me to say that they have 
become so by a faithful discharge of public duty. No corrupt inter- 
est of any of them has appeared or been favored by me. 

"Fifteenth, That he is one of a ring known as the 'Freedmen's Bu- 
reau Ring,' whose connections and influences with the freedmen's 
savings banks, the freedmen's schools of the South, the political ma- 
chinery of a party in the Southern States ; and whose position has 
been to devote the official authority and power of the bureau to 
personal and political profit." 

The fifteenth point is. imperfect in its expression. The charge of 
"Freedmen's Bureau Ring" is denied, unless it is to be understood 
that certain individuals who are and have long been earnest workers 
for the benefit of their fellow men are intimate and, united in good 
works. The "ring" is placed in good connection with the freedmen's 
savings banks and the freedmen's schools of the South, but the po- 
litical party is not specified. I hope those who work against the 
poor and lately enslaved are not intended; if so, I deny the connec- 
tion. But as to devoting the official authority and power of the bu- 
reau to personal and political profit, I am in no way guilty. There 
are no facts to sustain such a charge, 



ARGUMENT OF MR. KETCHUM. 



Mr. Chairman : It was said by Sir Francis Bacon, the king's so- 
licitor, in a judicial charge upon the commission of the Oyer and 
Terminer, held for the verge of the Court, that " It is the happy es- 
tate and condition of the subject of this realm that he is not to be 
impeached in his life, lands, or goods, upon flying rumors, or wander- 
ing fames or reports, but by the oath and presentment of men of 
honest condition, in the face of justice." 

We too, happily, stand in the face of justice; but all our efforts 
have tailed to obtain an acknowledgment from any one who has ap- 
peared before you that he is the originator or procurer of these charges. 
True, indeed, the honorable gentleman from New York, my own 
Representative, has declared himself responsible, as he is responsible, 
for the action he has taken; but he has at the same time de- 
clared in the House, and in this room, that he had no personal knowl- 
edge of the matters brought hither, that he had no acquaintance 
even with the accused person, and that he had no feeling against 
him, but was rather predisposed in his favor upon his war record. 

I proceed now, sir, to examine these charges in their order. I take, 
therefore, the , 

FIRST CHARGE. 

"That he has taken from the appropriations made for, and the re- 
ceipts of that bureau, more than five hundred thousand dollars, im- 
properly and without authority of law, for the ' Howard University, 
hospital, and lands.' " 

We say government funds have been used for these objects, as fol- 
lows: First, from the appropriation by Congress for educational pur- 
poses (act of July 13, 1866, and act of March 2, 1867) ; Second, from 
the Refugees and Freedmen's fund (act of March 2, 1867). But one 
fund, namely, the appropriation fund, has been used for the erection 
of hospital buildings. 

The lands used for the university and hospital buildings were not 
purchased by the government, but by the corporate body known as 
"Howard University." The Howard University derives its funds 
partly by transfer of money from the refugees and freedmen's funds 
and partly by gifts from societies and individuals. The lands have 
been paid for from funds so derived and from funds arising from the 
sale of lots. 

First authority. The act to establish a Bureau for the relief of 
Freedmen and Refugees, approved March 3, 1865, enacts as follows : 

"Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America, in Congress assembled, That there is hereby 
established in the War Department, to continue during the present 
war of rebellion, and for one year thereafter, a Bureau of Refugees, 
Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands, to which shall be committed, as 



ARGUMENT OF MR. KETCHUM. 13 

hereinafter provided, the supervision and management of all aban- 
doned lands and the control of all subjects relating to refugees and 
freed men from rebel States, or from any district of country within 
the territory embraced in the operations of the army, under such 
rules and regulations as may be prescribed by the head of the bu- 
reau and approved by the President. The said bureau shall be under 
the management and control of a commissioner to be appointed by 
the President, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, 
whose compensation shall be three thousand dollars per annum." 

In the act making appropriations for this bureau, approved 
March 2, 1867, for the year ending June 30, 1868, an appropriation 
was made for building of schools and asylums, including construc- 
tion, rental, and repairs, five hundred thousand dollars. 

The act continuing the Freedmen's Bureau, taking effect July 16, 
1868, sec. 3, provides as follows: 

" And be it further enacted, That unexpended balances in the hands 
of the Commissioner, not required otherwise for the due execution of 
the law, may be, in the discretion of the Commissioner, applied for 
the education of freedmen and refugees, subject to the provisions of 
law applicable thereto." 

These acts allowing construction give ample authority for the 
expenditure of money in the erection of Howard University. 

Now, as to the funds transferred from the refugees and freedmen's 
funds, the words are : " That the Commissioner be hereby authorized 
to apply any balance on hand, at this date, of the refugees and freed- 
men's fund, accounted for in his last annual report, to aid educational 
institutions actually incorporated for loyal refugees and freedmen." 

The interpretation of this last clause has been uniformly considered 
to embrace incorporated educational institutions that had the inten- 
tion, or had already assumed the trust of educating loyal refugees and 
freedmen. Any other interpretation would render the act ineffectual, 
for we know of no institutions whatever that have been incorporated 
expressly and solely for the education of refugees and freedmen. 
More enlarged powers are found in the act approved June 15, 
1866, which has never been modified or repealed. These words occur 
in it: 

" Sec. 2. And be it further enacted, That where accounts are ren- 
dered for expenditures for refugees or freedmen, under the approval 
and sanction of the proper officers, and which shall have been proper 
and necessary, but can not be settled for want of specific appropria- 
tions, the same may be paid out of the fund for the relief of refugees 
and freedmen, on the approval of the Commissioner of the Bureau of 
Refugees and Freedmen." Approved June 15, 1866. 

The only requirement with respect to this fund in any given case 
is to show that the expenditures for refugees and freedmen were 
"proper and necessary," and approved by the Commissioner in the 
exercise of the discretion plainly given him. 

In this discretion the expenditures for Howard University were 
embraced. With regard to the hospital, the appropriate name is 
asylum; for the majority of its inmates are not really sick, but aged, 
infirm, imbecile, or insane. 

This asylum is the provision made by the Commissioner for con- 



/ 



14: ARGUMENT OF MR. KETCHUM. 

solidating the numerous hospitals and asylums throughout the 
Southern States. 

The authority for the expenditure of money for asylums is found 
in the act above referred to and approved March 2, 1867. 

This authority is clearly conferred by the act approved April 7, 
1869, as follows: 

" An act relating to Freedmen's Hospitals : 

" Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United 
States of America, in Congress assembled, That the Commissioner of 
the Bureau of Refugees and Freedmen is authorized and directed to 
continue the freedmen's hospitals at Richmond, Virginia; Vicksburg, 
Mississippi ; and in the District of Columbia, including the asylum 
for aged and infirm freedmen and for orphan children : Provided, that 
the expense thereof shall be paid by the Commissioner out of moneys 
heretofore appropriated for the use of the bureau: And provided 
further, that said hospitals shall be discontinued as soon as may be 
practicable in the discretion of the President of the United States." 
Approved April 7, 1869. 

Here, sir, I may say at the outset, while looking at the law, that 
the gentlemen on the other side were under a mistake when they 
made the comparisons in regard to appropriations and expenditures, 
as was very apparent from the evidence of Dr. Brodhead, when he 
testified before the committee. They thought the Commissioner was 
restricted to the specific item in making expenditures under a given 
appropriation. That was an error. 

The act of May 8, 1792, Statutes at Large, vol. i., sec. 9, p. 281, 
provides: "That the forms of keeping and rendering all public 
accounts whatsoever shall be prescribed by the Department of the 
Treasury." 

Now, under that act the Secretary of the Treasury did issue his 
warrants, and they have been produced before you in evidence, bring- 
ing all the work of the bureau under one specific head, and the 
accounts all stand under one head accordingly. Both Brigadier 
General George W. Balloch, Chief Disbursing Officer of the Bureau 
of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands, and the other officers 
of that bureau have uniformly rendered their public accounts under 
the forms prescribed by the Department of the Treasury. 

And our opponents were mistaken again, for they alleged more 
differences than the figures show. They took the appropriations 
for the two years, comparing them with the expenditures for four 
years and upward, whereas it might be found upon examining the 
whole of the amounts of appropriations and expenditures that there 
is but a single instance in the years 1866 and 1867 m which the 
expenditures under a particular head were beyond the appropriations 
under that head, namely, that of clerks. 

But under the head of clerks have been included agents, and so it 
may appear that $198,600.73 were expended in excess of the particu- 
lar appropriations, amounting to $165,600. Further than this there 
is no excess, and this difference is in no wise material. A single 
head covers the whole work and characterizes the account of the 
bureau. 

Yet even without the act of 1792 and the warrants of the Secre- 



ARGUMENT OF MR. KETCHUM. 15 

tary of the Treasury under it, the act of 1868, which provides that 
all unexpected balances are to be expended in the discretion of the 
Commissioner, would be sufficient for us on this point. 

SECOND CHARGE. 

" That portions of the land alleged to have been sold for the benefit 
of Howard University fund were disposed of improperly to members 
of his own family and officers of his staff." 

No proof whatever has been brought to show that land of the 
Howard University was sold to any members of the family of Gen- 
eral Howard. But it has been understood from the beginning that 
one lot was taken by General Howard himself. There have been no 
lots sold to officers of his staff, for General Balloch and Mr. Alvord 
are not accurately officers of his staff. It means, I suppose, officers 
of the bureau ; and we are willing to accept it as meaning that and 
to answer it accordingly. 

Now, sir, as to the lot taken by General Howard. You will remember 
that the Smith farm was without any improvements, and that it was 
outside the limits of the city. Doubtless the owner sold it gladly ; 
and when these parties purchased it they had a great work to do. 
There were one hundred and fifty acres of land without even an 
inclosure. It was procured for a university. But that would not 
occupy one hundred and fifty acres, and nothing else should come 
upon the land that would injure the university or the neighborhood. 

You have learned from evidence here that General Howard had 
his own dwelling in G street ; that it was worth and was sold for 
$10,000. That was located nearer his place of business and more 
conveniently for his mode of living. But there was something to be 
done, and the object was to establish the Howard University. 

The question was, can it secure such improvements as will advance 
the character of the neighborhood ? can it attract men hither of spirit 
and ability, friendly to the object, and ready to help it forward ? I 
do not wonder that they offered General Howard an acre. He seems 
to have been prominent in procuring the land. General Whittlesey 
was with him ; but I think it clear that General Howard was the 
principal actor. 

Under these circumstances why should not these men who had 
charge of this matter, in order to induce General Howard to begin 
the improvement, offer him this acre of land ? It was the most 
natural thing in the world. 

They did offer the land. General Howard was engaged in his offi- 
cial duties here and in the South, and an answer does not seem to 
have been promptly made. The parties here were all friends ; there 
were no suspicions lurking in any bosom ; there was no apprehension 
that any person would put by anything to bring it into such a court 
of inquiry as this, or to tell what happened in the meetings, or 
whether General Howard was advised to accept or not to accept. 

He resolved to build his house on the ground, and seems to have 
left the offer unanswered for a while, but in August, 1867, he for- 
mally declined it. Then a committee is appointed to fix a valuation 
upon the lot. It is on Seventh street, upon the high land, and over- 



16 ARGUMENT OF MR. KETCHTJM. 

looks the city. They fixed the price at a thousand dollars, a trifle more 
than it cost, for they gave $147,500 for the one hundred and fifty acres. 
They put in a condition that he should build a house on the lot to cost 
not less than $10,000. Was not this a fair consideration ? It has been 
emphasized that General Howard got a house-lot there for $1,000 
which might have been sold for $2,000 or $3,000. But it was more 
than a money consideration when they could bring General Howard 
with such a house there, and so begin their work and get it in a state 
of forwardness. I say, therefore, he gave the fullest consideration 
for the lot. The house, which was to be worth $10,000, has been 
shown to be worth more than $15,000. 

As to the purchase of lots by the officers of the bureau : General 
Balloch gave $4,300 for his lot, and he built a valuable house upon 
it ; Mr. Alvord purchased a lot for $3,100, and he, too, built a good 
house. Are they to be condemned for doing this ? 

THIRD CHARGE. 

" That bonds issued in aid of the First Congregational Church of 
the city of Washington were taken in payment for a portion of this 
land, which have not yet been redeemed or paid, nor have they been 
returned in his official accounts as such." 

That charge was certainly made without knowledge, by some 
person who heard the "flying rumors" or "wandering fames and 
reports," but who was not at all acquainted with the facts. There 
has been no attempt to prove it. " That bonds issued in aid 
of the First Congregational Church were taken in payment for a 
portion of this land." Does it mean that Howard University sold 
lots for these bonds? It did not do so. Of course what follows falls 
with this. 

FOURTH CHARGE. 

" That the University building and hospital were built of patent 
brick, furnished by the American Building-Block Company, in which 
General Howard, Charles Howard, General B. Whittlesey, and C. W. 
Alvord, all attached to the bureau, were interested as stockholders." 

Little need be said of this. The committee remember perfectly 
well that General Howard, after beginning this enterprise with the 
others soon left them. The project was to procure the manufacture 
of this building-block in Washington. But when the trustees of 
Howard University chose to have it for the new building General 
Howard quitted the enterprise. He sold out his interest some two 
months before the first blocks were made for Howard University. 
That charge, therefore, is disproved, and by testimony which was pro- 
duced on the other side. The note given for that interest was dated 
in August, but the arrangement for its transfer was made prior to 
the 9th of July, as fully proved. 

FIFTH CHARGE. 

"That the specifications for the construction of those buildings 
provided that the material used in their erection should be taken 



ARGUMENT OF MR. KETCHUM. 17 

from the brick made by this company, thus preventing competition 
and securing the use of that brick, and no other, for that purpose." 
This is incorrect. There is no company named in the specification. 
The material is named in it. That is no specification which does not 
name the material of which the building is to be constructed. It is 
the very nature of a specification to do this. " Thus preventing com- 
petition, and securing the use of that brick, and no other, for that 
purpose." But there was a price fixed, and it was $40; upon that 
every one would estimate. The specification named the material and 
the price, which was five dollars less per thousand than it was sold 
for anywhere else. The transaction was fair and open, and could not 
operate unjustly toward any one. 

SIXTH CHARGE. 

" That the brick so used was unfit and nearly worthless, parts of 
the building having fallen down in consequence, and other parts 
have since been repaired and rebuilt at an expense of $13,000." 

No part of the case has been more fully investigated. Artificial 
stone in itself is no novelty ; cities are built of burnt clay ; but this 
block is differently made. Some have approved of, who afterward 
condemned it; some have doubted, who afterward believed in it. We 
have in the testimony ground for a reasonable judgment. The 
report of the commission of General Hardee, J. W. Rumsey, and others, 
minutely describes the material and its manufacture, and the build- 
ing of the hospital and its fall. Major King, who made the experi- 
ments for the commission, N and Mr. Rumsey have also testified on 
this trial, and Mr. Vanderburgh, the patentee. The testimony shows 
that the stone so made is as truly stone as any produced by natural 
causes, and that it will become as hard as any. The elements of both 
are alike. This is shown by Mr. Vanderburgh, whose enthusiasm 
never obscured his clearness. But opinions differ ; Mr. Clarke and 
Mr. Mullett testified against it, and the Rev. Dr. Sunderland. Mr 
Clarke had thought well of it but changed his mind. The hospital 
fell. Few could volunteer a defense of the new material at such a 
time. And here I call the attention of the committee to the fact 
that when a part of the north wall of the dormitory fell, while under 
construction, the cause of it was a bad foundation, which had been 
laid without sufficient bonding, so that it opened and let down the 
superstructure. The proof on this point was complete, and showed 
there was no fault in the building block. I said few could volunteer 
a defense of the new material at that time ; yet defense could be 
made. 

Large buildings had been constructed of it in various parts of the 
country, and they stood firm ; and so did the University itself — as 
Mr. Rumsey said, " strong and safe, and with as lew cracks in its 
walls as any building of its size he ever saw." If panic must prevail 
the University must be abandoned and lost. It had cost $150,000 
and supplied a want never met here before, and seemed to be strong 
and safe. Was it to be sacrificed with all the hopes and interests 
depending on it ? 

The majority of the trustees (General Howard was absent at the 

2 



18 ARGUMENT OF MR. KETCHUM. 

time from Washington) differed from the president, Dr. Sunderland, 
and he retired, leaving on record his opinion, which was unfavorable. 

I do not blame Dr. Sunderland for retiring. He has left on record 
his opinion. And yet the building stands firm, and is of excellent 
use, and Mr. Vanderburgh said that when this Capitol should be 
crumbling in ruins that University would be adamant. The reason 
he gave was that those elements of the atmosphere which corrode 
marble harden the block. 

The length of the hospital building ran north and south. In the 
middle was a hall- way formed by two cross walls running east and 
west. The block was made in cold weather and used sooner than it 
should have been. It was laid up in November and December and 
exposed to the weather, and the mortar became frozen before it could 
set, and frost produces expansion. At each end, therefore, of the 
cross walls they exerted a great pressure against the exterior walls, 
tending to throw them outward. 

It was near twelve o'clock on a morning in December that the east 
wall fell out. The sun had thawed the mortar, and then, according 
to the testimony, the wall "sloughed off," opening a semicircular 
space like an inverted arch. The fall was not by the crushing of the 
material, but by the sliding out of the whole mass, and it was thrown 
out where it had been met by the cross walls and not at the ends 
of the building. 

After one o'clock, when the afternoon sun was upon the west wall, 
that thawed and fell out also, and the appearance on that side was 
like the other. The cross walls and the end walls stood firm. 

This description, which is drawn from the testimony of Mr. Van- 
derburgh and the report of the commission appointed to examine the 
case, may show the error of those who imputed this injury to the use 
of the building-block, as if that had been the only reason why the 
building fell. 

The story went forth in the newspapers that this block was worth- 
less, and alarm was felt concerning the University building on the 
part of its friends, and its enemies plied their arts to convince the 
public that it must be abandoned as unsafe. 

Those men were courageous who bore up against this influence, 
and they deserve praise. They have their reward in the present 
condition and continued use of the buildings on the University 
grounds. 

To show that the cause which produced the fall of the hospital 
would have operated in a similar way upon walls in the like con- 
dition, built of burnt brick or stone, I quote Peter Nicholson, the 
author of an English work, " The Mechanics' Companion," which is of 
high repute. 

He says : "There is nothing so prejudicial to a building as alter- 
nate rain and frost, if exposed ; for the rain makes way through the 
pores into the heart of the stone and mortar, and when the freezing 
comes on the water is converted into ice, which expands beyond the 
original bulk with such power that no known force of compression is 
capable of resisting its expansion. In consequence of this the 
heaviest stones and even the largest rocks have been burst." 

And I beg l^ave to refer to the report of President Barnard of 



ARGUMENT OF MR* KETCHUM, 19 

Columbia College, in New York, who was a Commissioner to the 
French Exposition, giving a description of the Coignet artificial stone. 

It was remarked upon the trial that this was a very different thing 
from our building-block, but I think it will appear on examina- 
tion that the two substances are very much alike. It is sand and 
lime with moisture and pressure, but Coignet had also a little cement. 
The foundations of the building for the French Exposition were 
built of this material. And a good reason is given for it. It can be 
made in large pieces, so that a wall can be constructed with fewer 
joints, lessening the liability to settle and crack the walls of the 
superstructure. And this material can be made in beautiful forms 
without the expense of cutting, So iron buildings are constructed. 
The metal is run into the mold and it is soon ready. But the iron 
is more costly than the sand and lime. This material is much 
cheaper and may be as beautiful. Why should it be utterly 
condemned ? 

The time may come when this block will be in common use 
notwithstanding the obloquy cast upon these men for the faith they 
had in it. 

Mr. Rumsey, a witness for the prosecution, said that if the Uni- 
versity were built of pressed brick it would have cost $25,000 more 
than it has. And another said that if the cornice surmounting that 
building were made of brown stone it would have cost as much as all 
the exterior walls of the present University. If the trustees of the 
University instead of constructing this building of a material so cheap 
had used what was more costly, could they have escaped censure ? 
Then the complaint would x have been that they had expended so 
much more money. 

This sand was good and it was near. An important object was to 
give employment to the poor, that paupers might earn their living. 
It was not to give them money. It would be well to give them a 
fair remuneration for their work ; they would be taught that " he 
who will not work neither shall he eat," provided he can get work 
to do. 

A witness not friendly to the material said it was fascinating in 
its appearance, and was in good repute when these contracts were 
made. There are gentlemen in New York who built their houses 
of it. They ridicule the idea of any danger. The steeple at Mor- 
risania fell from the ignorance of those who erected it, the immediate 
support of blue-stone giving way. 

The honorable Representative from New York (Mr. Wood) has said — 
and I refer to it again because he was absent when I alluded to 
it this morning — that he never had any acquaintance with the officer 
accused ; that he had had no business with him ; that he had no feel- 
ing against him, and that his prepossessions were rather in his favor 
on account of his war record. I was glad to hear that, and I thank 
him for it. I hope that he has no more hostile feeling now than he 
had at the beginning. 

As to the loss of $13,000 by the fall of the hospital. That is a 
mistake. We have found it is $22,000, which shows how misin- 
formed these accusers were. 

It could not be otherwise than that common brick should be used 



20 ARGUMENT OF MR. KETCHUM. 

instead of the block in rebuilding the hospital. The common brick 
was as cheap, and care would be taken to prevent a renewal of the 
former calamity, and there would be a silencing of evil tongues ; and 
so the common brick was used. 

You remember that General Howard built his own house of this 
material of which the University and hospital were constructed. Surely 
a man under covenant to expend $10,000 on his house, and who 
expended over $15,000 for it, where his family were to live, would 
take care to have it safe. It has been said that it fell. But it never 
fell.. In the rear of the house, before the leader from the roof had 
been provided, the water came down spreading and freezing upon 
the wall, the ice standing an inch thick on a surface of several feet in 
width. As soon as this came off the damage appeared on the face of 
the block. The effect was to scale the surface. General Boynton 
and Mr. Harvey said it fell. Mr. George Cook, who did the work, 
said it did not, but was repaired by removing the outside half of the 
blocks and substituting new pieces. Peter Nicholson in his book has 
told us that any material will suffer in that way if thus exposed. 
General Boynton spoke of other buildings falling there, but soon 
corrected himself, saying he did not mean they fell, but that portions 
were taken down. But George Cook told us how that happened ; 
that the frost affected them in the same way ; that the 'buildings 
were not finished, and, being injured in a similar manner, had to 
be mended. The house of General Howard has not been painted, 
and stands very firm in all its parts. 

SEVENTH CHARGE. 

" That by his consent and with his knowledge lumber belonging 
to the government was used by this company, and appropriated to its 
own benefit, being resold to its employes." 

As to the last part, there is no word of proof upon it. Here again 
is shown what " wandering fames and reports " the authors of these 
charges sent abroad. 

The contrast between the rest of the charge and the proof becomes 
absurd, but must be shown. All that was proved was that two 
colored men with two carts took government lumber, part of the 
debris of an old shed, and carried it to this hill. The witness failed 
to state who gave the order. He inquired of the men and they said 
General Charles Howard authorized them to take the lumber. But 
this is mere hearsay and no proof. The quantity of this lumber so 
taken was five hundred feet, and it was worth one and a half cents a 
foot, or $7.50 for the two loads. • 

Mr. Alvord shows an order from the assistant commissioner signed 
by Major Clark for lumber, and says the lumber was for sheds for 
the University but that it was never delivered, enough having been 
obtained for the purpose from the material of other sheds taken 
down. 

EIGHTH CHARGE. 

" That he pays rent to Howard University from the funds of the 
bureau for the privilege of a headquarters." 

And so he does. Why not? Boys sometimes call a companion an 



ARGUMENT OF MR. KETCHUM. 21 

Indian giver : he gives and then snatches away. That is not fair even 
among boys. But if this Howard University is legally transferred to 
its corporation why should it not have rent ? This thing was not 
done in a corner, it is set upon a hill as a city that can not be hid. 

The Treasury Department has the report of it, and Dr. Brodhead, 
the second comptroller, who came here as a witness, and who knows 
the law perfectly, has either passed the accounts or will pass upon 
them as the law requires. 

Here is a charge that " he pays rent to the Howard University 
from the funds of the bureau for the privilege of headquarters." Yes, 
he paid $5,000 to strangers, and here he pays $3,000 to friends — I 
mean strangers or friends in respect to the great work to be done 
for the freedmen. But he pays $3,000 for the rent of better accom- 
modations than the bureau had before, and the money goes to the sup- 
port of the other part of the house, which is a great object. 

The expenditure is within the purview of the law, within the object 
and intent of Congress, and above all within the object and intent 
of the nation, and why offer reproach for this? I think it to be 
praised. I think this thing, and all these things — for several others 
like it appear in this history — go on like a river with successive falls, 
at each of which the power is used beneficently, the same waters, 
fresh and vigorous, turning mill after mill in all their progress to 
the sea. But it is noticeable that while the former rent was $5,000 
this is only $3,000. Yet here is an officer who " belongs to a ring and 
goes for his friends." How is it he did not choose to pay $5,000 to 
the University ? The accommodations were better and he had a dis- 
cretion. The reason is he x was a true economist. He was not to 
squander merely because he had money under his charge, as enemies 
pretend he did. He was not watching for a hole in the bag out 
of which the money could be taken. No, he acted as in view of the. 
whole world, and with a good conscience. 

Bight here it is natural to recall the picture of Mr. Rumsey, who 
was a witness, who was a brother member with General Howard of 
the Congregational Church, who built the church edifice and who 
built the University — to recall the picture of Mr. Bumsey, disap- 
pointed at having been underbid by Mr. Cook upon the job of the 
extras for the University, exhibiting in the bureau office his dissatis- 
faction at the furnishing to the Sunday-school children of the pre- 
miums for bringing into the school new scholars without examination 
into the color of the eyes and skin, and at the non-recognition by 
the Commissioner of the bureau (a brother member of the same 
church) of Mr. Bumsey's right to have the job without competition, 
and at his own price. General Howard was administering the law 
for the public interests and not in the interest of friends. He might 
have been compliant and Mr. Bumsey might have remained friendly. 
But he was faithful to his duty and Mr. Bumsey went his way. 

I was much impressed with the proof brought to show that the 
Commissioner warmed the rooms of the bureau by a heating appa- 
ratus which allowed the warm air to escape into the upper rooms 
occupied for the University. The expense was $40 a month. It was 
a small thing to bring into this case in connection with the dealings 
of this officer with the interests of four millions of people with a fund 



22 ARGUMENT OF MR. KETCHUM. 

of $13,000,000. But such charges characterize this proceeding gen- 
erally. I am not speaking of the gentleman who brought the reso- 
lution before the House ; I offer no reproach to him for bringing in 
the charges. I hold them responsible for this who are at the bottom 
of it ; because there is a spirit here that marks the whole case, and 
must be exhibited to the committee and to the country for the 
understanding of it. 

Here is a small committee-room. The House is larger in its num- 
bers and in its area. But the people fill the country. Was it the 
plan that these charges should go out and things be so fixed that 
without hearing both sides — and without an opportunity of hearing 
both sides— there should be suspicion and malediction all over the 
country on account of this bureau? They knew some hated it; 
they knew it was very popular among the masses of the people ; and 
now is it to be so misrepresented and belied for the purpose of black- 
ening the name of the man put in charge of it, of blackening the 
character of those who have sustained him, defaming the Congresses 
that have sustained him with their enactments and their sympathy ? 
Is that the object? If it was the object then ought such proofs 
as these to appear along with the charges, so the spirit that prompted 
them may be made manifest. 

NINTH CHARGE. 

"That he draws three salaries — namely, one as brigadier general of 
the United States army, another as Commissioner of the Freedmen's 
Bureau, and a third as the head of Howard University." 

There is not a word of truth in this, and not a word of proof to 
excuse it. But there are plenty of people all over the country who 
.have no more doubt that General Howard has done this than that the 
Capitol is here. They say " It is a shame." " It is a good way of 
making money." There may be men in office who do such things; 
but it has not been done here, and not a word of testimony has been 
offered to show it. 

Sir, is there no responsibility for this on the part of those who have 
invented these charges ? u Shall a man scatter firebrands, arrows, and 
death, and say, Am not I in sport ?" Upon highest authority he is 
responsible and shall be condemned. 

General Howard is the president of Howard University, and you 
know under what circumstances. Others preceded him and they 
departed. At last he was called at a salary of one dollar per annum 
(merely nominal, of course), and he is subjected to this reproach. It 
may appear in the course of this argument that the authors of these 
charges knew this one to be untrue. There was a resolution that 
$5,000 should be paid to the president of the University when he 
should perform the full duty required by the office. But General 
Howard received notice, with the appointment, that his salary was 
one dollar per annum, and he answered it, " I accept." Is he to be 
blamed ? Ought not a man who will do so to be praised rather 
than condemned for it? 



ARGUMENT OF MR. KETCHUM. 



EVENING SESSION. 



Mr. Ketchum resumed his argument on behalf of General Howard. 
He said: 

Mr. Chairman: Thanking you and the committee for your indul- 
gence, I will now proceed with what I have to say upon these 
charges And first, I beg leave to add a few words respecting the 
lumber. I omitted to say this morning, what has been shown in the 
testimony, that a rumor did come to General Howard on that sub- 
ject, through Major Brown, and that he immediately ordered the 
seizure of all the lumber on the University grounds, and it was 
seized accordingly. Therefore, so far as General Howard was con- 
cerned, his duty was performed. 

I beg leave to add a few words on that first charge in reference to 
the order for the transfer of $125,000 to the Howard University, 
which order was made on March 12, 1869. The act of June 16, 1866, 
has, in the second section, these words : " That where accounts are 
rendered for expenditures for refugees or freedmen, under the ap- 
proval and sanction of the proper officers, and which shall have been 
proper and necessary, but can not be settled for the want of specific 
appropriations, the same may be paid out of the funds for the relief 
of refugees and freedmen, on the approval of the Commissioner of 
the Bureau of Refugees and Freedmen," giving authority to the 
Commissioner, and permitting his fiat to pass the account in the 
Treasury Department. That is the act of June, 1866. The order 
runs that Brevet Brigadier General George W. Balloch, Chief Dis- 
bursing Officer, will transfer tlie sum of $125,000 to the Howard 
University institution, &c, under the. act approved March 2,1867, 
said sum to be paid out of the balance on hand March 2, 1867, of 
the Refugees' and Freedmen's fund. Now the amount that was on 
hand March 2, 1867, of that fund was not equal to $125,000. That 
has appeared in the testimony. If this order had been correctly 
made it would have given the date, as to the funds on hand, not 
March 2, 1867, but March 12, 1869, the date of the order itself. The 
money was then on hand — $145,000 and more. A part of the 
$125,000 was on hand on the 2d of March, 1867, but not the whole 
of that amount. This order stood well enough in respect to so much 
as was on hand on the 2d ot March, 1867 — say $97,000 or less ; and 
it would amount to an inaccuracy as to the specification of date. 

I turn now to the act of 1868, chapter 63 : "And be it further en~ 
acted, That unexpended balances in the hands of the Commissioner, 
not required otherwise for due execution of the law, may be, in the 
discretion of the Commissioner, applied for the education of freed- 
men and refugees, subject to the provisions of law applicable there- 
to." This act of 1868, along with the preceding acts, fully empow- 
ered the Commissioner in the premises ; and the error was in the 
date, and it is for the authorities to say how it shall be corrected if 
it ought to be corrected. I am not informed whether these accounts 
have been passed in the Treasury, but the gentlemen there under- 
stand their duty, and if there is an error they will see to its being 
corrected. It is only a clerical error. 



24 ARGUMENT OF MR. KETCHUM. 

Mr. Hoar. Of what are you now speaking? 

Mr. Ketchum. Of the transfer of $125,000 to the Howard Univer- 
sity by the order of March 12, 1869, which order directs that that 
money shall be transferred by General Balloch out of the balance on 
hand of the Refugees' and Freedmen's fund on the 2d of March, 
1867, at which date there was not $125,000 of that fund in his hands, 
although a larger sum was in his hands after that date and at the 
date of the order. That is the explanation to be given of it. I 
recollected to-day that it was a matter of particular inquiry by Mr. 
Wood and Mr. Bradley. 

Mr. Tyner. And your view is that that order of March, 1869, is 
based on the act of June 15, 1866? 

Mr. Ketchum. And also on the acts of 1867 and 1868 — all three of 
them come in to give authority. 

I reach now the 

TENTH SPECIFICATION. 

"That he has paid from the funds of the bureau over $40,000 for 
the construction of the First Congregational Church, taking the 
church bonds in return, which he has either returned in his accounts 
as cash on hand or sent South for the purposes of the bureau." 

Here again is shown a total misconception of facts. It is wholly 
untrue, and seems to have grown out of the impressions those wit- 
nesses had who came here and told the committee they heard Gen- 
eral Howard say in meetings of the trustees that he had, or would 
have, money of the bureau; which he could lend for the benefit of 
the church ; and that if they would make bonds he would lend 
money on them. This specification has been drawn in accordance 
with that story, but it is an entire mistake, and they were entirely 
mistaken in their impressions. 

"He has paid from the funds of the bureau over $40,000 for the 
construction of the First Congregational Church." He never paid a 
dollar, and had not a dollar of the bonds of the church, and was not 
therefore to return a dollar as cash on hand, and was not to send the 
bonds anywhere for purposes of the bureau. But it will be recol- 
lected perfectly well that a fund had been transferred, and had been 
for a certain time in the hands of General Balloch, the treasurer of 
the University, for the University ; that it was a charity fund which 
was to be invested, and of course to bring interest; and the question 
was where it should be placed. The trustees of the University 
resolved that they would loan it on some of those bonds, and they 
did so — it was not the Refugees' and Freedmerfs fund after that trans- 
fer and acceptance, and could not be. The Retained Bounty fund 
of which these men spoke was not a fund which could be trans- 
ferred for educational purposes. That had another object, and 
another use altogether. As a matter of fact, therefore, that fund 
never was given to the University, and it never did in any way reach 
the hands of these church people. It has been amply brought 
before the committee by the testimony, although it has been sup- 
pressed from those partial reports in the newspapers that have been 
spoken of to-day, that the property of the church was worth more 
than $100,000, and that the church mortgage was only $40,000, or, 



ARGUMENT OF MR. KETCHUM. 25 

to speak more exactly, $38,000. Senator Pomeroy has spoken of the 
value of those bonds, and of his willingness to take them if the 
Howard University did not want to keep them; and Mr. Runisey 
himself, who was not friendly to the accused, said these bonds were 
a most ample security. 

Now it is true that the trust deed did not contain the provision 
that careful conveyancers insert in such papers, for an insurance, 
making it for the benefit of the holder. The treasurer thought 
that it did, but when examined more carefully it was found that 
the clause was not in the trust deed itself But the insurance 
is made, and is made for the benefit of the holders of the trust deed, 
and of the persons interested beneficially under these bonds. But 
the land itself is ample security without the house ; it is ample 
security for $38,000. In the State of New York, in loaning the 
United States Deposit fund, no note is taken of buildings, but the 
land on which the loan is made must be worth a certain proportion 
of value beyond the loan. I refer to that provision as having been 
drawn by wise men with great care, and having existed nearly forty 
years with safety to the fund ; and I say that this trust deed is 
ample security for the money advanced, and that the Howard Uni- 
versity can go into the market and get the cash for these bonds if 
it wishes to do so. If it were otherwise, if it were as the old Chan- 
cery bill of foreclosure used to say: "a slender security for the 
same," and if the fund was put to risk by means of that, it would be 
a different thing. But even then this charge, as made in this paper, 
would fall, and we have a right to say that we stand here on 
the charges made. We are not^here to solicit changes in these 
specifications. They stand or fall as they are. And what is 
said of the loan by the University upon these church bonds is to be 
said also of the loan by the Normal School at Richmond, Va., on 
some others of them. Nothing could show clearer than the testimony 
of Mr. Manley of that institution how free it was to loan or not upon 
that security, and how freely and cheerfully it loaned upon what it 
took. But it was the trustees of the University and the trustees of 
the Richmond school that invested the money, and it was the cor- 
poration of the church that borrowed it. The Freedmen's Bureau 
and its Commissioner neither borrowed nor lent 



ELEVENTH SPECIFICATION. 

" He has advanced a large sum from the funds of the bureau to the 
Young Men's Christian Association of this city, taking their bonds in 
payment, which have been sent to Tennessee to help the freedmen's 
schools in that State." 

I suppose that in a court of law this would have fallen as soon 
as the testimony upon it was heard. It is entirely untrue. 

" He has advanced a large sum from the funds of the bureau to the 
Young Men's Christian Association;" all the rest depends upon that, 
and that is not true. General Howard has not advanced any sum 
from the funds of the bureau to the Young Men's Christian Associa- 
tion. He did individually hold $1,500 of bonds or stock of this 
Young Men's Christian Association, and a school in Tennessee did 



26 ARGUMENT OF MR. KETCHUM. 

choose to invest that money in these bonds, being guaranteed for a 
year that they should be at par, and then within a year General 
Howard individually took up the bonds at par and interest. 

That is the whole of it. It is personal and not official. It was 
not the money of the bureau. This specification, therefore, is 
entirely without foundation. It is another evidence of the reckless- 
ness of those who accused this public officer before the country. 

TWELFTH SPECIFICATION. 

" That he caused or knowingly allowed lands in this city owned by 
an officer of the bureau to be transferred to a freedmen's school in 
North Carolina; the officer taking the money appropriated for that 
school and the school the lands in this city, thus perpetrating a fraud 
both on the government and on the freedmen." 

If this were so it was hazardous to leave such a public officer in 
charge of the money which remained in the bureau during the 
weeks of this investigation. It would be strange if such a thing 
could be said with any truth and that officer be left in full exercise 
of the large powers conferred on him by law. But it was too reckless 
and wrongful an accusation to inspire fear. 

I will refer to the testimony. The committee recollect that Mr. 
McKim, secretary of the Freedmen's Union Commission, informed 
General Howard that he had two hundred pounds sterling, which 
friends in England thought could be well employed in getting home- 
steads for the freedmen. Months passed before an answer was sent 
to Mr. McKim, when General Howard wrote, saying, " I think I have 
found a place where this can be clone. There is a square (describing 
G^ueiie 1025) which can be obtained and so employed; what do you 
think ? " Mr. McKim replies, " I think well' of it, and I send you the 
money." General Howard invested that money and gave his own 
obligation for the difference, and that was some $8,400. So it 
remained for a time ; but there are difficulties in the way of placing 
the freedmen on that property. The people do not like them in the 
city. There are hindrances which we all understand and which 
operated to such a degree that the original idea in connection with 
this land was changed. The piece of land I refer to is square 1025 
east of the Navy Yard, on the eastern branch of the river, near the 
shore, and on Twelfth street East and Virginia avenue. It was found 
that would not do. They could not well and wisely place the colored 
people there. In the mean time they find that they can get a far better 
piece of ground, more extensive, and which will accomplish far better 
the end they have in view. 

That is the Barry farm, which is three hundred and seventy-five 
acres in extent. The Barry farm charge comes in just after that upon 
this square 1025. They are linked together very closely. 

Mr. Hoar. I should like you to state with as much particularity as 
if we never heard it before, all about this land, the sources from 
which the money came, the original transactions, and what became 
of the property. 

Mr. Ketchum. If you permit me, then, Mr.. Chairman, I will just 
bring together for that purpose the Barry farm and this square 1025. 



ARGUMENT OF MR. KETCHUM. 27 

While holding square 1025 the Barry farm comes in view. It was 
learned from the land agent that Barry farm, across the river, near 
what is called Union Town, and running up to the asylum grounds, 
might be purchased for $52,000. Senator Pomeroy, who came here 
and testified before you the other evening, was very anxious that 
that enterprise should be undertaken. He urged it very strongly, 
and believed that if a settlement could be made on that ground these 
colored people would have comfortable homes for small prices, and 
that they would be able to pay for them. The problem was how to 
do it, Nobody would sell land to colored people. This plan was 
devised : That there should be trustees, and that a fund should be 
transferred to these trustees, destined ultimately for three educa- 
tional institutions of the higher order, in equal parts. Therefore 
first the $52,000 must be taken by the trustees and invested in 
land, and then the land must be sold and the proceeds given to 
those institutions. Senator Pomeroy, Mr. Elvans, and General 
Howard were made the trustees under that order, and received 
that fund ; but owners of land would not sell to colored people, 
and if those names appeared the person who was to sell would reject 
the contract. So the land agent advised that Mr. Elvans should 
go and get the land. Senator Pomeroy went with Mr. Elvans, took 
the money, and got the land, and Mr. Elvans immediately conveyed 
it to the trustees. Now the school at Raleigh was to receive one 
portion of that fund ; but it had no need to use this money at that 
time, and as Rev. J. Brinton Smith testified here very heartily, the 
school chose to take the square 1025 and invest so much of the money 
as was then coming to it in that square There was nothing personal 
in that except the obligation of General Howard for the deferred 
payments of square 1025. It was not that he was engaged in a money- 
making operation. It was that he was engaged in an enterprise to 
further the great object which he had in view, that these poor colored 
people should not nave to dwell in Murder Bay and such places in 
this city, paying all they could get for wages in high rents for 
wretched domiciles, filthy and miserable. That was the story of this 
square 1025. It was purchased at five cents a foot and was conveyed 
at five cents a foot, so much of it as was conveyed. A part which 
was nearest the shore was taken by the Block Company. Five acres 
of square 1025 were taken by the school, and Mr. Smith says they 
Would not sell it for $13,000, which is much more than they paid for 
it. Dr. Thompson testified that the square was worth $85,000, that 
it was worth about eighteen cents a foot, and it cost only five cents 
a foot. In the next street land had sold at thirty cents a foot, but 
that was more improved. 

Here I may call the remembrance of the committee to the fact 
that this land was rough, that one part of it was higher than grade, 
and another part of it lower than grade. There was a ravine, as Mr. 
Bradley called it. The school at Raleigh held that property in 
fee. There came a time in a season of cold and want when these 
Barry farm occupants and owners were without employment (and so 
without money) and without food and clothing. It is well known 
that from the beginning the government had been engaged in dis- 
tributing charity among these people, and that they have been sus- 



28 ARGUMENT OF MR. KETCHUM, 

tained with rations and supported in various ways. Large sums of 
money were so expended. What should be done with them now? 
Something must be done ; they could not get work in the city at that 
time ; they were destitute and ready to starve. This plan was 
devised. There sbould be work done in grading that piece of ground 
belonging to the school at Raleigh, and instead of giving money to 
these people to feed them during the season of want they should be 
given work and paid wages. A contract was therefore made with a 
fit person to do that grading,, to take off the hill and throw it into 
the ravine, and then to pay these men for their work instead of 
bestowing upon them charity. From early in March until Septem- 
ber, 1869, they worked on that ground under contract with Mr. Van- 
derburgh, who came here and told the committee all about it, and 
showed that some $30,000 out of $32,000 in all had been paid for 
the labor of these colored men, and for horses and carts, the differ- 
ence being all that he received on his contract, which was only a 
fair and reasonable remuneration. 

Therefore this charge is refuted, but it has been sent over the 
country as it stands, and the guilt belongs to those who sent it. 

THIRTEENTH SPECIFICATION. 

" That he was interested in the purchase of a farm of about three 
hundred acres, near the lunatic asylum in this county, for which the 
public funds and other property of the government were used, build- 
ings were erected thereon, built with lumber belonging to the 
government, and then let and sold to freedmen at exorbitant prices ; 
and that he and his brother Charles were personally interested in 
that transaction as a private pecuniary speculation." 

That is already seen to be untrue. It is severe, like the rest, 
and imputes fraud in very plain terms ; but it is not true. He was 
not individually interested in the purchase of the farm, nor was 
his brother interested in it in any way. " For which the public 
funds and other property of the government were used." Well, 
public funds devoted to the use of the freedmen had been trans- 
ferred to the trustees and in their hands were used in the first in- 
stance to pay for this land. 

u Buildings were erected there, built of lumber belonging to the 
government." Yes, $76 per house was used in building dwellings on 
the acre lots. 

" And then let or sold to the freedmen at exorbitant prices." They 
were not let, they were sold and contracts were given.for deeds upon 
full payment of the purchase money, and the purchasers were to pay 
installments on these acre lots; they paid $10 a month, which was 
not more than they would have been paying anywhere else for rent 
without acquiring any interest in the land, rent would have been a 
loss of so much money, but here the $10 was a payment toward the 
fee simple of the property and went toward the extinguishment of 
the debt. 

Now as to the exorbitancy of the price. That charge is easily dis- 
posed of. The price of one of these acre lots with the house was 
from $125 to $300 ; the average was $225. That is very cheap for 



ARGUMENT OF MR. KETCHUM. 29 

an acre of land and a dwelling near this city. An acre is equal to 
sixteen lots of twenty-five feet by a hundred. And here they had 
the acre and also the house for $225, at an average. Was that 
exorbitant ? It was far otherwise. 

"He and his brother Charles were personally interested in that 
transaction as a private pecuniary speculation." Mr. Chairman, if 
this were spoken against a man of bad character it might not trouble 
him much ; and if it were uttered against a man of very good char- 
acter who could immediately expose it, it might not trouble him 
much ; but for such a charge to be sent over the country for weeks 
and read by men who never hear of its refutation, or of the condem- 
nation of the accuser, this is aggravating. It stands here and is pre- 
sented before this committee and before Congress against General 
Howard. It is a great wrong but it is now exposed. 

Mr. Hoar. Was it or not in evidence that these lots with the houses 
were sold to persons who bought them at the average cost of the lot 
and lumber without profit ? 

Mr. Ketchum. It was. They were sold without profit. So there 
was every disposition to benefit the freedmen and not the slightest 
disposition to deal hardly with them. And look at the consequences. 
I may here recall for a moment the case of square 1025. Fifty cents 
per day of their wages was left undrawn by these workmen of their 
own accord— not by stipulation, but of their own accord, which shows 
their character and disposition. Under the advice of a very worthy 
man, Mr. Vanderburgh, the contractor, this fifty cents a day of their 
wages was left behind and paid on their debt for their land ; so they 
not only got their living for^these seven months, but were able to pay 
the balances on their homesteads, and to come out free. 

But the expenditure of the $32,000 on that square has been 
telegraphed over the country as a dishonest act on the part 
of General Howard, by which his own land was improved to that 
extent by the use of the public money. That would have been rob- 
bery indeed, but it has appeared in proof that the statement is 
wholly untrue. 

Perhaps some of the gentlemen of the committee may have seen 
Barry farm. I have. A man will be found there who will tell you 
that he has been in every great city in the world ; that he was a 
steward on steamships ; and he will tell you that his place as he has 
improved it has cost him $3,000. You will see his house, well 
painted, on the west side of the road toward the lunatic asylum. It 
has rooms on both sides of the hall. It is nicely carpeted, fitly fur- 
nished, humbly and plainly. Pictures of Mr. Lincoln, Mr. Stanton, 
and General Grant, hang on the walls of his parlor. That man's son 
walks seven miles each day to the Howard University and back, get- 
ting his education there. That is the condition of one man. You 
may see another, some thirty-six years of age, very black, very 
strong, very happy, working on his place. He will welcome 
you. His little house cost him some ninety dollars. You will 
see his mother. That aged " aunty," as she raises herself up to look 
at you, will tell you that she has had eleven children, and that all of 
them were sold away from her. She lived down in Louisiana. The 
man will tell you that he was one of those children. He went down 



30 ARGUMENT OP MR. KETCHUM. 

to Texas, and when he came up through Louisiana and Alabama he 
found his old mother and brought her up here with him, along with 
his wife and son. And there they live. "Have you paid for your 
place?" you may ask him, and he will say, "Don't owe fifteen cents 
on it, sir." 

You go into the schoo 1 , and you see a boy of ten years old who 
will answer any question in geography when the others fail, though 
they may be older ; he is a bright boy, though of dark complexion. 

These people are happy there, having hom.9S and having comforts. 
And this is the enterprise in which these gentlemen are engaged, 
under the authority and means provided by Congress. Surely, Mr. 
Chairman, these were not things to abuse anybody for who had a part 
in bringing them about. This is the Barry farm. 

FOURTEENTH SPECIFICATION. 

This, indeed, does not specify anything— which is my embarrass- 
ment. It says that "he has discharged the duties of the office of 
Commissioner of the bureau with extravagance and negligence, and 
in the interests of himself, family, and intimate friends." It must 
be considered in the light of what has been said, and of what may 
be said hereafter. 

Then the 

FIFTEENTH SPECIFICATION, 

'•That he is one of a ring known as the Freedmen's Bureau ring, 
whose connections and influences with the freedmen's savings banks, 
the freedmen's schools of the South, and the political machinery of 
a party in the Southern States ; and whose position has been to de- 
vote the official authority and power of the bureau to personal and 
political profit." 

As to the fourteenth specification, of negligence and extrava- 
gance, I can only say there has certainly not been any personal 
negligence in the administration of office, because it has been shown 
to the committee that more than the office hours were devoted 
by General Howard to the business, and that his time and attention 
were given assiduously to this work, and the world knows that it 
has been very extensively and beneficently performed. 

As to the many things announced to be under this head which 
flitted before this committee and passed away, some of them quite 
undefined and none of them proved, I can hardly know how to refer 
to them without a waste of time. 

Take for instance the Mr. Alden who came herefrom Florida, and 
who had a claim against the bureau on account of some property of 
confederates which he had leased, and which had been restored to 
the former owners under President Johnson's order. He told of sales 
of rations which men who were bureau agents told him they had 
made. It did not seem very credible on the face of it. He did not 
come before the committee in a very good aspect. There were cir- 
cumstances attending his case which were suspicious, for there was 
reason to believe he came to testify because he had not yet succeeded 
upon his claim before the bureau. And it turned out after he left 
that Gen. Kly, whom he named as the bureau officer whose clerk made 



ARGUMENT OF MR. KETCHUM. 31 

confessions to him, was no bureau officer, he having been mustered 
out of service some time before. He never was a bureau officer in 
Florida at all, but was in South Carolina, and was discharged long 
before. There was a vagueness about all this witness said which 
deprived it of the character of legal testimony. 

So far as the matter of the house in Florida and the stealing of it by 
a Mr. Sutton was concerned, it was of small value, but was believed 
to have been taken away illegally, and immediately the Commissioner 
gave orders for the prosecution of Sutton, and professional aid was 
employed for that purpose. Here there was no fault. 

Possibly the sale of the hospital lot for $6,000 to Howard Univer- 
sity, after it had been purchased for $12,000, may be brought under 
this head. 

The explanation of that is that the Retained Bounty fund was in 
the hands of General Balloch as its trustee, that its earnings of 
interest were $6,000, and that the principal only had to be accounted 
for. Under the order of the President it was brought into the 
bureau, and under the order of the Commissioner of the bureau it 
was placed in the hands of General Balloch, and he must be ready to 
answer to any bounty claims at any time they should be authenti- 
cated. But they were to be answered to the extent of the capital 
only, without interest. 

The land which had been bought for $12,000 was sold to the Uni= 
versity for $6,000, and the Retained Bounty fund remained intact, 
and the gain enured to the benefit of the Howard University, 

It was designed by General Butler originally that that fund should 
be for the benefit of the poor freedmen, and it can now be seen how 
they are deriving benefit from this operation. 

Mr. Hoar. I do not think that I am quite possessed of your ex- 
planation ; be good enough to state again. 

Gen. Howard. General Butler had command in North Carolina 
and Virginia. He retained by an order of his a portion of each 
colored man's State bounty, for the benefit of the women and chil- 
dren. It remained in the .hands of General Butler's disbursing 
officers in North Carolina and Virginia. Operating under the Presi- 
dent's order when I took charge of the Freedmen's Bureau after its 
organization, that money came into my hands, and I made General 
Balloch trustee thereof, and he invested a portion of it for a school 
up here prior to any law. I reported it to Congress and asked for a 
law, and a law was passed, and I was subsequently authorized to 
invest that sum in government securities. 

This order of General Butler's was in i 864. I took charge of the 
bureau in 1865, and the investment was made January 3, 1867. 

Mr. Ketchum. The investment in this land was prior to the act of 
Congress approved 2d of March, 1867, the enactment of which Gen- 
eral Howard procured, giving a legal character to the fund, and 
authorizing its investment in government bonds. 

This land was sold to the Howard University for $6,000, and the 
money was, with the rest of the Retained Bounty fund, invested by 
General Balloch in government bonds under the act of Congress, 

Mr. Hoar. From whom was this land purchased ? 

Mr. Ketchum. From strangers. 



32 ARGUMENT OF MR. KETCHUM. 

Mr. Hoar. At what price ? 

Mr. Ketchum. At $12,000, including the building. 

Mr. Hoar. And it was paid for out of this Retained Bounty fund? 

Mr. Ketchum. Yes ; and after it was paid for it was rented at 
$1,200 a year for two or three years. 

Mr. Hoar. Having purchased it from the Retained Bounty fund at 
a cost of $12,000 you sold it to the Howard University for $6,000 ; 
was that because the price of $12,000 was too large, or was it be- 
cause the other $6,000 was not needed as a gift ? 

Mr. Ketchum. The $6,000 had become a gain by rent, or interest, 
or both. There was no injunction or obligation to increase the fund; 
there was only an obligation to hold it safely. This gain accrued to 
the Howard University, and the Retained Bounty fund remained in- 
tact. The Howard University, for the hospital and the asylum, ob- 
tained this house and land for $6,000, instead of $12,000. 

Mr. Hoar. In other words, you gave to the University, by reason of 
making that sale at $6,000 less than the cost, the $6,000 which had 
been a gain, and you kept your original fund intact? 

Mr. Ketchum. Yes, sir ; that was the operation. 

General Howard remarked that the four years' occupancy of the 
iiouse had injured it very much and reduced its value. 

Mr. Hamilton inquired where this fund was invested. 

Mr. Ketchum. It was invested in a piece of land where the hospi- 
tal now is, prior to act approved March 2, 1867 ; but it is now in- 
vested in United States bonds, which I believe the Commissioner of 
the bureau caused to be purchased. 

There is another item to which I may refer. Just south of the 
Capitol you may see prominent a row of frame houses, buff color, 
with gables facing toward it. They are on square 640, and there are 
ten houses that cost $1,300 each. The land belonged to the Univer- 
sity; the buildings were erected as tenements for the poor, and were 
rented to them. They are in good order, better than tenements or- 
dinarily found for poor colored people in this city, or in any other 
city, I suppose. The people who dwelt in them are comfortable and 
pay their rent. Under the order of the Secretary of War and Judge 
Holt's opinion they were transferred to the Howard University by 
the Commissioner of the bureau, and they now belong to the How- 
ard University, and it receives the rents, which form part of its 
revenue. 

Squares 1054 and 1055 have been referred to in the testimony as 
Lincoln Green. They lie east of the Capitol, and almost as far from 
it as the Treasury Department is west. These two squares of land 
were conveyed to the same trustees that hold the Barry farm, Senator 
Pomeroy, Mr. Elvans, and General Howard. There are seventy-six 
tenement houses on them. They are the houses that were built 
where the sand was brought of which testimony was given here. 
They cost about as much apiece as the other houses on square 640. 
When General Grant was Secretary of War he recommended this 
work to be done for the aid of the freedmen. 

The money derived from this property is devoted to educational 
purposes for the freedmen. There is no evidence before the commit- 
tee that the houses were extravagantly built, or that they were un- 



ARGUMENT OF MR. KETCHUM. 33 

necessary, or that they were unused. No rent has been lost, nor any- 
thing done in regard to them which would show extravagauce, 
negligence, or want of care. 

The Chairman. Do I understand that these belong at present to 
the Howard University? 

Mr. Ketchum. No, sir ; they are held in fee by the trustees, Sena- 
tor Pomeroy, General Howard, and J. R. Elvans, the same trustees 
who hold the Barry farm. They are held for educational purposes 
generally, the funds to be devoted, under the laws concerning the 
Freedmen's Bureau, to those objects. 

Gen. Howard. They are not limited to those three institutions 
mentioned before. 

Mr. Hoar. Under what authority of law do you say that this fund 
was so disposed of? 

Mr. Ketchum. I understand it to be under that discretionary power 
which is given to the Commissioner for the use of those moneys, that 
is, for the benefit of the freedmen, and for their education, &c. That 
I understand to be the authority which is broadly given by those sec- 
tions to which I have already referred. 

Gen. Howard. That and the absolute necessity there was to pro- 
vide tenements for the poor. 

Mr. Ketchum. And here, Mr. Chairman, it may be well to express 
a thought which has often occurred to me, and which may have oc- 
curred to members of this committee. Here is a bureau of the War 
Department. It is really a civil service and not military. There is 
a bureau in the Treasury called the Bureau of Internal Revenue. 
The act concerning internal revenue is very long, with many sections. 
This Freedmen's Bureau has been treated very differently by Congress. 
The sections referring to it are few, and the discretion and authority 
given are large. Now if Congress believed that this officer was a bad 
man it certainly would not have left him with so large discretion. 
It would have bound him with many directions and limitations. 
I refer to this because the question brings it up, showing the 
discretion which the Commissioner had, and showing how he has 
been exercising it to the best of his ability, and with the best coun- 
sel he could get in Washington, from gentlemen in the Senate, and 
in the Departments, and even from gentlemen on the bench. It was 
testified by Senator Pomeroy that the Barry farm enterprise was not 
undertaken without prior communication with the excellent Dr. Brod- 
head, of the Treasury Department, the Second Comptroller, and even 
with the Chief Justice himself. 

The Chairman. What was the cost of that property on square 1054 ? 

Mr. Ketchum. The cost of the houses was about the same as that 
of the houses on square 640 — $1,300 each. 

Gen. Howard. The cost of the two squares, 1054 and 1055, was 
$25 000. The houses averaged about $1,300. That was Major Brown's 
testimony. 

Mr. Ketchum. These poor people were scattered all over the city, 
in various barracks and other places, where the land belonged to pri- 
vate owners, who demanded a restoration of their property and who 
were to have it. It was therefore necessary to remove all of them, 
and they would have been homeless if provision had not been made 

3 



34 ARGUMENT OF MR. KRTCHLM. 

for them, and under the advice referred to, of the Secretary of War 
and now President, General Grant, this enterprise was undertaken 
that they might have homes. That was the necessity of the case, 
and the houses have heen so occupied since. 

"In the interest of himself and family and intimate friends," the 
charge goes on to say. 

He has no family but his wife and little children, and " his inti- 
mate friends" is too broad and vague a term for me to notice more 
particularly. 

In the fifteenth specification it is charged that " he is one of a ring 
known as the Freedmen's Bureau ring." 

Now, Mr. Chairman, what is a ring? i We do not find a definition 
in the dictionary. I think Edmund Burke said that "A party is an 
association of men with the object of promoting the public welfare 
on some principle of government on which they are agreed." That 
is a party formed for the welfare of the State. 

But a ring is very different. And I undertake to give a definition 
of the ring. It is a secret association of dishonest persons (sometimes 
pretending to be opposed to each other) for committing depredation 
on public or private interests for their own advantage. That is 
very different from a party. It is of less magnitude ; it is selfish in- 
stead of patriotic, and it is secret instead of public. Its existence 
may be suspected or may be known but will not be acknowledged by 
its members. They keep their ways secret. They are dishonest. 
They want to commit' depredations on public or private interests, and 
too often they do it; and it is for their own advantage. That is what 
this charge must intend. 

So the difference between a party as defined, and a ring as intended 
by this charge, is as wide as the difference between patriotism and 
treason — between virtue and vice. 

Party is necessary to give effect in government to the popular will.. 
The same thing is necessary for success in any great public service. 
There must be men associated for its advancement, and they must be 
of one mind in respect to the animating principle. And they must 
know, and understand, and confide in each other. 

In England the Stuarts and the Star Chamber could not be re- 
sisted and overcome by a, single man. The patriots of that country 
were combined for strength, and they established the rights of the 
people against tyranny. 

A hundred year3 ago, when independence was to be achieved by 
the United Colonies of America, there must be agreement and coope- 
ration between Washington and Franklin, the Adamses, Jefferson, 
Hamilton, Sherman, and the rest, whose wisdom and courage won 
what we enjoy to the full — independence, freedom, and prosperity. 

So the vast work, opened before this country at the close of the 
rebellion, for the protection, relief, and elevation of the enslaved race 
made free, demanded talents for administration, and a distribution 
of labor among men of congenial spirit, with a heart for the work. 

Such men, with this accused oft^r at their head, became enlisted 
in this service, in the spirit of patriotism, and of true religion. 

It is no wonder that when there was government aid under law for 
the freedmen there should be schools and savings banks. No wonder 



ARGUMENT OF MR. KETCHUM. 35 

that education and industry and thrift should go hand in hand, rais- 
ing the people who for two hundred years had labored without wages, 
and lived without rights which their masters or any others were 
bound to respect. 

General Saxton, before the Freedmen's Bureau was created, began 
a Freedmen's Savings Bank at Beaufort, S. C, and had gathered from 
the people there, who were working industriously, some $200,000. It 
was my privilege to invest this in government bonds, and under 
General Saxton's direction to turn it over to this Freedmen's Saving 
and Trust Company, upon its being chartered by Congress. 

The influence and operation on these poor people was very good, 
and will be lasting. This savings bank has received in all thirteen 
millions of dollars of these people all over the country, and has now 
about a million and a half remaining on deposit. 

Colonel Eaton, the actuary, has testified here that the average du- 
ration of deposits is three months, and he says that the money already 
drawn has been drawn by depositors mainly for the purpose of pay- 
ing for land — that they have invested in land, and are getting home- 
steads for themselves. There is nothing evil in that. They are not 
political institutions, they are kept and carried on tor the benefit of 
these people themselves. 

Something has been said here about certain expenses that were paid 
by the bureau. When the bank was established in Washington, the 
Commissioner of the bureau allowed the cashier who testified before 
you to occupy a cellar room, and afterward, on the corner of Penn- 
sylvania avenue and Nineteenth street, to occupy a room where there 
was a bureau officer in one part and a bank clerk or cashier in 
another part. Certainly this N was not extravagance or negligence — it 
was for the benefit of the freedmen. You will recollect that the only 
thing to be paid out of the gains of this bank are its expenses, and 
that all beyond expenses was to be divided among the depositors. 
Therefore, whatever expenses the bank incurred would be so much 
lost by the depositors, and whatever it saved would be so much 
gained by them. But the bureau derived an advantage from the ser- 
vices of these bank officers in various ways, in regard to bounties, 
education, &c. That has all been explained in the testimony. It is 
one of those things that seem too small to make so great clamor about. 
The freedmen's schools are also a part of the wrong charged 
against General Howard. Certainly no one who was concerned in 
getting up these charges ever went to the South and entered any of 
these schools — never went there to see what kind of people were 
there and what benefits were bestowed and received. They hate the 
bureau and General Howard, and so they calumniate the schools with 
them. The freedmen's schools are blessings to the people and the 
country, while these accusers see nothing in them but political ma- 
chinery for operation to their injury. 

Mr. Chairman, it is a shocking perversion of truth to say that the 
devoted self-denying men and women who composed the body of la- 
borers for the welfare of the freedmen, from the chief in Washington 
to the humblest teacher in the plantations, composed a " ring." 

Their animating principle was benevolence, and the daily fruits of 
their labor appeared in the improvement of the freed people. 



36 ARGUMENT OF MR. KETCHUM. 

That man is to be pitied who, looking upon all this can see noth- 
ing in it to commend, but only something to revile. 

" As heaven's blest beam turns vinegar more sour,' ' 

so benefits and blessings, however abundant and visible to the good, 
are only bitterness and gall to the malevolent And this is the 
due reward of malevolence. 

" Truth dwells with all that truth prefer, 
But seeks not them that seek not her." 

Upon them, under a law divine and just shall be sent strong delusion 
that they should believe a lie, losing all the rich enjoyment that God 
gives to man in the perception and promotion of truth in the world. 

General Howard had friends around him from the centre to the 
circumference of the field he occupied, courageous and faithful ; not 
dishonest or unworthy. 

He would not to-day win the verdict of the committee or the 
approval of Congress by the sacrifice of one of those faithful and 
excellent persons. 

WHAT HAS BEEN BONE BY THE BUREAU. 

Now, sir, allow me to call attention to what really has been done 
by the Freedmen's Bureau. Let me remind you of General Sher- 
man's march — that march from Chattanooga to Atlanta, back through 
Georgia to Resaca, thence through the mountains into Alabama ? 
down central Alabama to Gaylesville, then again to Atlanta, and 
then to Savannah. 

Here was a great extent of country traversed by our army through 
a width of two hundred miles. In all that country the population 
became chaotic. As the army marched it was approached by the 
poor and wretched, who thought, and had a right to think, that here 
was freedom for them. They gathered about the army, clung to it 
with all their poverty and wretchedness, their raggedness and 
nakedness, their hunger and thirst, their weakness and sickness ; and 
they were not repelled. The army went from Savannah to Beaufort, 
South Carolina, and from Beaufort to Columbia, thence eastward to 
Raleigh in North Carolina, and thence to Richmond. At Wilming- 
ton, North Carolina, it was necessary to ship eight thousand of 
these poor people southward to the Sea Islands, in charge of General 
Saxton, for it was necessary that they should have some resting 
place, and there they could be sustained. There were in different 
places in the South one hundred and forty-eight thousand of these 
poor refugees and freedmen to whom the commissary department had 
been issuing rations, and these were to be transferred to their future 
homes, or to homes where employment could be found. If only a 
hundred thousand of them had been supplied with rations for the 
five years in which the bureau has been performing its work, at 
twenty cents for each a day, that would have cost $36,500,000, and 
if that hundred thousand people (not the one hundred and forty- 
eight thousand, you perceive) had been supplied with clothing at 
$10 a year each, that would have cost $5,000,000 more, so that it 



ARGUMENT OF MR. KETCHUM. 37 

would have cost $41,500,000 to keep these hundred thousand for five 
years as paupers. This was the operation that was going on at that 
time. 

Then began transportation. These poor people who had followed 
our army were to be sent to homes ; were to be set to work if possi- 
ble ; were to be shown to some way of living. And this became the 
work of the bureau. 

It is a matter of history that General Howard commanded the 
right wing of General Sherman's army in its march to the sea ; that 
he saw these people on the way, knew their condition and that of the 
country, and knew their wants. That march completed, and Mr. 
Lincoln, who had already selected General Howard for the place of 
Commissioner of the bureau, being taken away, Mr. Stanton took 
care to place him where Mr. Lincoln had designed him to be, and 
President Johnson made the appointment. Thus he came to the 
work with a full knowledge of what was required, and he imme- 
diately set himself about it. 

Then a plan was formed to organize joint-stock companies to take 
up plantations and work them by free labor. These joint-stock com- 
panies were more profitable to the poor, who get a partial support 
from them, than they were to the members, for they lost much of 
what they put in, and the companies were in many cases a fail- 
ure. Their benevolence was rewarded by partial good to the poor, 
but they made nothing for themselves. It will be remembered 
that as the months rolled on the hope of profit from the culture 
of cotton was dissipated, and the crop became an utter loss. The 
people had nothing to live upon, and authority was then given by 
law to issue rations to all classes. Seventy-five thousand people were 
thus fed in South Carolina, North Carolina, Louisiana, and Mississippi, 
in Hve months. Then came a great trouble. The abandoned lands 
which had been put in charge of this bureau must be taken from 
the freedmen and others and restored under the order of President 
Johnson to those who had held them, and many controversies grew 
up, some specimens of which have appeared in the testimony here. 
Peace and good order must be maintained, and they were. Eight 
hundred thousand acres of this land were restored to applicants. 
You have heard very little complaint here on this subject, and such 
as came did not, I think, commend itself to your respect. 

Then the administration of justice had been abolished. There 
was no law, there were no courts ; the strong might overcome the 
weak — -the poor especially under charge of the bureau were defense- 
less. So it became a necessity that the bureau should establish jus- 
tice, and it did so. Its officers exercised authority to effect arbitra 
tions. The officer of the bureau would be an arbitrator with some 
planter and some other person, and they would hear the case and 
determine it; and this went on until the habit returned of look- 
ing to some authority and submitting to its decisions. And 
after this practice had been established it was found safe under 
Mr. Johnson's reconstructed governments to transfer this juris- 
diction to those authorities, but always with the concession on their 
part that the colored man should be a witness. The colored man in 
the South had never been a witness until these operations of the 



So ARGUMENT OF MR. KETCHUM. 

bureau secured his right to be heard as such in courts of justice. 
That was a great advantage, and it was won by this bureau. We have 
heard no praise of the bureau for this from the other side. In North 
Carolina there were three thousand four hundred and five such cases 
in three months, and there were a hundred thousand cases in all in a 
year, under the administration of the bureau. 

It will be remembered that when, early in 1865, the bureau took 
charge of issuing rations to colored people there were one hundred 
and forty-eight thousand persons so supplied by the commissary de- 
partment of the army. It will be interesting to see how these num- 
bers became reduced. In September, 1865, the number was reduced 
to seventy-nine thousand nine hundred and fifty. . There had been a 
rigid examination of each applicant, and every one was rejected who 
could help himself. There was a continuous reduction, so that on 
the 1st of September, 1866, the number had become twenty-nine 
thousand nine hundred and nineteen, and in the next year, 1867, to 
eleven thousand six hundred and fifty-eight. And then aid was only 
given to the helpless and the destitute freedmen and refugees. 

There was a special fund of $500,000 (afterward increased) set 
apart by the Commissioner, under the sanction of the Secretary, and 
fifty-eight thousand persons, white and colored, were fed daily in 
18(55, upon authority of the act of Congress then passed, under the 
necessities of the case. In the year ending 1st September, 1868, 
there was an average number of sixteen thousand eight hundred and 
four persons fed under that law, and in 1869 the average fell to one 
thousand nine hundred and eighty-three. During the same period 
clothing was distributed among the destitute to the amount of 
$252,547, besides old clothing from quartermasters that was unfit to 
issue to the troops. Employment was found for multitudes, who 
were put in a self-supporting condition. 

But one of the very early things done in this work was to secure 
the rights of the freedmen by contracts under which they should do 
the work and have their pay secured. These contracts were printed, 
and written, and in a single State no less than fifty thousand in one 
year were drawn and executed in duplicate. The good results that 
followed the use of these contracts became well known to the coun- 
try at that -time. 

By the operation of the medical department, hospitals and asylums 
for the sick and infirm old people and orphans who had been aban- 
doned by their former owners were provided, and the death rate 
was reduced in the first six months from thirty per cent, to four per 
cent. The number of hospitals established by the bureau over the 
country was fifty-six. The number of patients in 1867 was one hun- 
dred and forty-four thousand one hundred and forty-nine; in 1868 
one hundred and sixty -five thousand four hundred and forty-nine ; in 
1869 sixty-five thousand six hundred and thirty. 

The bureau has had under its care seven hundred thousand sick 
and infirm persons, for whom no provision was made by the regular 
authorities. Insane persons are included in that number. For more 
than a year efforts were made to transfer these to the local authori- 
ties. Now the fifty-six hospitals are reduced to one, and the five 
orphan asylums are reduced to one, and these are located in this Dis- 



ARGUMENT OF MR. KETCHUM. 39 

trict. I will ask General Howard to read a paragraph which I have 
marked on page 10 of his last year's report: 

General Howard read the paragraph, as follows : 

" A vast amount of such testimony to the industry and progress of 
the freed people could be gathered from the records of this office, 
and it is confirmed by the fact that the great mass of freedmen are 
now self-supporting, and that many have commenced planting and 
other business on their own account. In spite of all disorders that 
have prevailed and the misfortunes that have fallen upon many parts 
of the South, a good degree of prosperity and success has already 
been attained. To the oft-repeated slander that the negroes will not 
work, and are incapable of taking care of themselves, it is a sufficient 
answer that their voluntary labor has produced nearly all the food 
that has supported the whole people, besides a large amount of rice, 
sugar, and tobacco for export, and two millions of bales of cotton 
each year, on which was paid into the United States Treasury during 
the years 1866 and 1867 a tax of more than forty millions of dollars 
(140,000,000). It is not claimed that this result is wholly due to the 
care and oversight of this bureau, but it is safe to say, as it has been 
said repeatedly by intelligent southern men, that without the bureau 
or some similar agency the material interests of the country would 
have greatly suffered, and the government would have lost a far 
greater amount than has been expended in its maintenance." 

Mr. Ketchum. By the first section of the act of June, 1866, Congress 
provided that all the public lands in Alabama, Mississippi, and other 
States should be opened to settlement according to the stipulations 
of the homestead law of 20th May, 1862. Under that law homesteads 
upon the government lands in Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, 
Arkansas, and Florida, were obtained and the freed people were 
encouraged to get them. Four thousand families availed themselves 
of the opportunity. In South Carolina alone, under the influence of 
Governor R. K. Scott, late Assistant Commissioner, forty thousand 
acres were purchased by the freedmen and are held by them now. 

Then as to the school work : at the beginning of the war, in 1862, 
the work began of teaching these people on the Sea Islands, and I 
had the pleasure of seeing it there at that time. The work went on 
and when this bureau came into existence it was found that the 
benevolent associations which had been engaged in it had accom- 
plished much, and therefore it was provided in the act of 16th July, 
1866, that the Commissioner should at all times cooperate with 
private benevolent associations of citizens, in aid of freedmen and 
with agents and teachers duly accredited and appointed by them, 
and should hire buildings for purposes of education. These associa- 
tions did as much for the government as the government did for them 
and sometimes much more. Take for example the American Mis- 
sionary Association, whose representative, Rev. George Whipple, was 
examined before you. In the work of that association there was 
expended from 1862 to 1869, $1,650,000. This was in teaching the 
freed people. The bureau by rental, construction and repairs, and 
by transportation as authorized by the act of Congress, appropriated 
$213,000 of this — not one seventh of the whole amount above men- 
tioned. The $213,000 was not paid to or received by the American 



40 ARGUMENT OF MR. KETCHUM. 

Missionary Association. The great part of it was disbursed by the 
bureau itself in the way of construction and repairs. These things 
were necessary. The Rev. Mr. Whipple testified here of them. One 
of the unpleasant things that followed his testimony was that it was 
next day reported in The Cincinnati Gazette, whose correspondent 
here is H. V. Boynton, a witness for the prosecution, that the Rev. 
George Whipple, the secretary of the association, had testified that it 
had got $240,000 out of the bureau through the hands of myself, their 
treasurer, the counsel of General Howard, and that a large portion of 
the money had been sent over to Charles Howard, the Western secre- 
tary at Chicago. Next, the same thing appeared in the Journal of Com- 
merce in New York, with this slight addition that " of course for these 
curious proceedings there was no authority of law." And so the 
stories have gone forth concerning the American Missionary Associa- 
tion. It shows the spirit which animates the men who make this 
pursuit. That American Missionary Association expended six times 
as much as the government in the work it did. It is a noble institu- 
tion and has produced important results. You heard from it that it 
had sent forth four hundred colored teachers qualified to instruct 
their people. You heard from Mr. Whipple that the association is 
attending more and more to normal school instruction, and that the 
four hundred teachers it has sent out are but a tenth of the number 
the people want. 

A circular was issued by the Commissioner as soon as he came 
into office, calling upon the benevolent associations to make known 
their willingness to cooperate with the bureau, and some thirty of 
them responded— associations composed of men of various religious 
denominations of the country. None were excluded. 

Perfect liberality has been shown by the American Missionary 
Association in its work. It is not sectarian. And a large catholicity 
has been shown by the bureau in its cooperation with benevolent 
associations, ajDportioning its aid according to the amounts invested 
by them. 

And here may I not refer to the very singular exhibition made 
one day, when General Avery of North Carolina, who had been a 
bureau officer, declared with so much vigor, if not bitterness^ that 
he had protested against the appropriation of money to the Normal 
School at Raleigh, in North Carolina, because its trustees had been 
rebels ? He was an inspector of schools, and yet he did not take the 
trouble to go and see that school. He saw the position in which 
that placed him, and he began to explain that he had been very 
much engaged on court martial duty, and so had not been to that 
school, the building for which had been erected during that time. 
But before he was on court martial duty the school had been kept in 
another house, and he acknowledged he had never visited that. He 
was indignant because the bureau gave money for the benefit of that 
school, the trustees of which, he said, were notorious rebels. I was 
very glad when the Rev. J. Brinton Smith came here to tell us how 
that matter was. Those trustees were selected by the Episcopal 
bishop. They belonged to his church and were men of excellent 
character. And I was pleased to learn something of Colonel Cox, 
one of those trustees. It appeared that Colonel Cox, who had been 



ARGUMENT OF MR. KETCHUM. 41 

a confederate officer, had " accepted the situation" and had come in as 
a Christian gentleman and an American citizen to do his duty faith- 
fully to the country, and that he had been elected by the Kepublican 
party county attorney. That was the indorsement which his neigh- 
bors had given him. And yet here was a protest which General Avery 
made against General Howard's administration on that ground. Now 
who can doubt that General Avery had some personal reason for 
coming here and saying what he did ? 

But as those "protests'- came in it was seen that they established 
the more clearly the justice and liberality with which this office had 
been administered by its incumbent. 

Remember that the act of July 16, 1866, sanctioned all the Com- 
missioner had done, and enlarged his powers. The bureau cooperated 
with private associations. In every State at least one normal school 
has been established for the freed people ; the University in this 
District was also established. 

At this point I desire to express my acknowledgments as a citizen 
to the Hon. Mr. Hoar of Massachusetts, a member of this committee, 
for the very interesting and instructive speech made by him in the 
House of Representatives on the 6th of this month, upon %i Uni- 
versal Education as a National Concern and a National Necessity." I 
have been much impressed by the history he gives of the desire of 
Washington for national education. In his first speech to Congress 
(1789) he recommended to their patronage the promotion of science 
and literature, concluding a paragraph on that subject with these 
words : 

" Whether this desirable object will be best promoted by affording 
aid to seminaries of learning already established, by the institution 
of a national university, or by any other expedients, will be well 
worthy of a place in the deliberation of the legislature." 

But Congress took no action upon this recommendation. Then in 
1796, when the Farewell Address was to be made and Washington 
received from Hamilton the first draft, he returned it with regret 
that the topic of education was omitted, and praying that a section 
might be introduced expressive of the sentiments he then repeated. 

Hamilton replied, watering a piece of paper on the original, in 
which, in the short paragraph as it now appears in the Address, the 
expression was given. 

Again in his last address to Congress he renews his recommenda- 
tion, and especially the desirableness of a national university, but 
this was also fruitless. 

At last in his will he inserted the paragraph so earnestly desiring 
this object for his country, and devoting $10,000 toward the endow- 
ment of a national university. He had before that time selected 
a site for it — the same now occupied by the National Observatory 
in this city. 

It is affecting to read the concluding paragraph on this subject, on 
the fourth page of the speech, and I beg leave to quote it here : 

" Congress, so far as I can learn, has done nothing to accomplish 
this the great living and dying wish of Washington. Let us remem- 
ber that he spoke to our generation as to his own. Every year that 
the accomplishment of his cherished wish is deferred is a new dis- 



&£ ARGUMENT OF MR. KETCHUM. 

obedience and a new ingratitude. Perhaps in the mysterious Prov- 
idence of God the realization of the dream of Washington has been 
deferred until the enfranchised race, whose enslavement he lamented, 
could be admitted to their share of the light of knowledge. To our 
endless shame be it spoken, the legacy bequeathed by Washington 
to his country for purposes of national education was suffered to 
revert neglected to his estate, while the command which, to use the 
language of his will, he did ' most positively and most solemnly 
enjoin should in every part thereof be religiously fulfilled, without 
evasion, neglect, or delay' — that his emancipated slaves should be 
taught to read and write — was disobeyed because a compliance with 
it was prohibited by law." 

Is it not remarkable that a University should now be founded here 
in that which is before you, receiving all applicants irrespective of 
race or color or previous condition of servitude, and that this should 
owe its existence to the just action of the Commissioner toward the 
freedmen, under the discretion given by Congress ? 

But this present year — may I not say it ? — signalized by the adop- 
tion, of the Fifteenth Amendment, sees your public servant, under 
whose administration of affairs the freedmen have been conducted 
hitherto and this University established, arraigned for alleged 
offenses that, if committed, would banish him from the society 
of honorable men. 

Would Washington, in view of what is before you, have sanctioned 
the spirit or the conduct of the assailants? 

It is true indeed that the university proposed by Washington was 
to afford the wealthy home education for their children instead of 
foreign, which was then, he said, too common, little qualifying them 
for usefulness in a republican country like ours, while the University 
looking from its northern eminence upon this Capitol instructs 
chiefly the poor who must earn something by daily labor to meet 
their small expenses. But this is to the advantage of the latter. It 
is good for a man to bear the yoke in his youth. 

In the recently published diary and correspondence of Henry 
Crabbe Robinson, the English barrister, he tells of a member of 
the House of Lords, of great wealth, who, approaching the lord 
chancellor, asked him how he should make his son a great lawyer. 
" Make him a poor boy," said the lord chancellor. And the mind at 
once recurs to Lord El don, the great judge of equity, and Sir 
William Scott, master of the civil law, the sons of a coal-heaver of 
London. 

I will ask General Howard to read the paragraph at the bottom of 
page 11 of his report. 

General Howard read as follows : 

"My former reports on this subject and those of the general super- 
intendent of education have been so full that a very brief review 
only is here needed. I found many schools already in existence 
in those localities that had been for some time within the lines 
of our armies; these had been established and maintained to a 
great extent by benevolent associations of the North. As early as 
September 17, 1861, the American Missionary Association commenced 
a school for ' contrabands ' at Hampton, near Fortress Monroe. On the 



ARGUMENT OF MR. KETCHUM. 43 

8th of January, 1862, Rev. Solomon Peck, D.D., of Boston, established 
a school at Beaufort, South Carolina. Another was opened at Hilton 
Head the same month byBariard K. Lee, Jr. A more general move- 
ment was inaugurated by the efforts of E. L. Pierce, Esq., of Boston, 
and Rev. M. French, and on the 3d of March, 1862, about sixty 
teachers and missionaries were sent out by societies organized in 
Boston and New York. Others followed, some working independ- 
ently, others supported by local churches, and others by new relief 
associations formed in Philadelphia, Cincinnati, Chicago, and other 
towns. In the early part of 1864 an efficient school system was in- 
stituted in Louisiana by Major General Banks, then in command of 
that State. I did not attempt to supersede these benevolent agencies 
already engaged in the work of education, but gave them every pos- 
sible facility for continuing and enlarging their operations." 

Mr. Ketchum. In the first year there were ninety-six thousand 
6even hundred and seventy-eight pupils reported and there were 
nine hundred and seventy-five schools. The schools are now two 
thousand one hundred and eighteen and the pupils two hundred and 
fifty thousand, and there are a million and a half to be in- 
structed. 

Mr. Hoar. Do you mean a million and a half of the school age ? 

Mr. Ketchum. Yes, sir. 

Mr. Hoar. In that you count something besides colored children ? 

Mr. Ketchum. Only colored children. This I gather from the 
reports and authorities of the bureau put in evidence. I will now 
ask General Howard to read from page 12 in reference to teachers. 

General Howard read as follows : 

" Too much praise can not be bestowed upon the noble band of 
Christian teachers who have carried on successfully this work of 
education. Many of them have come from the very best circles of 
refined and cultivated society and have been exposed to privations, 
hardships, and perils which would have discouraged any who were 
not moved by the spirit of the Divine Teacher. To them belongs 
the credit in great measure for all that has been accomplished. They 
have done the hard work ; they have been the rank and file in the 
long fight with prejudice and ignorance. When they first entered 
the field as teachers, so general and bitter was the opposition to the 
education of the blacks that scarcely one white family dared to wel- 
come them with hospitality. When they were insulted and assailed 
very few had the courage to defend them ; but their good conduct 
finally overcame prejudice and better sentiments have gradually 
grown up in many parts of the South. Hostility to teachers and 
schools has in a great measure ceased." 

Mr. Ketchum. The colored people have themselves given in the 
last year tor school-houses and teachers no less than $200,000. 

!Now a few words as to bounties. The soldiers were everywhere 
defrauded by agents. Since April 17, 1867, the total amount of the 
bounties paid to soldiers through the agency of the bureau has been 
$5,831,417.89, and the balance in the Treasury on these bounties not 
yet called for is $1,220 656.52. A part of the system is a full, com- 
plete, and minute record of each case, so that its history can be easily- 
traced. 



44 ARGUMENT OF MR. KETCHUM. 

i 

BRITISH AND AMERICAN EMANCIPATION. 

The British government in 1833 abolished slavery in the colonies, 
giving $100,000,000 to the masters, with an apprenticeship of the 
freedmen for seven years; but Bermuda and Antigua waived the 
apprenticeship and had very favorable results, while elsewhere, with 
apprenticeship, there were disappointment and disaster, so much that 
the complete liberation was afterward anticipated by two years. 

This government gave instant freedom to four million of slaves, and 
devoted some $13,000,000 through this bureau to the benefit of the 
freed people ; and education was provided for, and industry enjoined 
upon them. 

Pauperism was soon reduced and independence grew up on every 
side. In five years the work has been done so well, with the means 
employed, that the experiment of emancipation has become a great 
success, and the nation has a right to regard iis colored population, 
once slaves, as a most hopeful element of strength, rapidly growing 
in knowledge, prosperity, and usefulness. 

We boast not of our slavery, but of its overthrow and of the policy 
and fruits that followed it. In the past we refined upon the cruelties 
of ancient Borne in the ingenuity of our system for the supremacy of 
the master over the slave ; but, led through the wilderness of our 
rebellion by the Hand that governs the universe and turns the hearts 
of men as the rivers of water are turned, we have been brought into 
a land of peace wherein dwelleth righteousness. 

It is guilty Manasseh who humbling himself in his affliction is 
brought again to his kingdom. It is Saul of Tarsus which persecuted 
in times past now preaching the faith which once he destroyed. 

So appears our nation in the contrast between ten years ago and 
the present time. 

A VIEW OF LOSS AND GAIN. 

Allow me now to show you what is the loss and what is the gain 
by the action of General Howard in some of those things in respect 
to which he is most bitterly assailed by his accusers. 

In the first place, I may say here that as to the sand, of which we 
have heard so much, and as to which it was said there was a loss of 
$4,030, there is a great mistake. The testimony which came in afterward 
by Major Clark showed that there were six thousand surplus bushels 
at squares 1054 and 1055 at the time Mr. Perkins was discharged, and 
then three thousand of those bushels were used, leaving only three thou- 
sand surplus. So the loss by the mistake in bushels — which was a mis- 
take as. to the number of bushels in a load — amounted only to $1,935, 
What was saved by the use of the building-block for the University, 
instead of pressed brick, was $25,000. What was saved by the lumber 
bought in the State of Maine, about which there can be no dispute 
whatever upon the testimony, was $7,086.98. And when it was com- 
plained that there had been a loss by sea from the want of insurance, 
it turned out that the government never permitted insurance. There 
was saved by the Smith farm to the University as follows: Paid for 
the farm $149,500 ; received for sales of lots $172,234 ; excess over 
amount of purchase money $24,734. And there remain fifty-two 
acres of that land which are reserved to the Univeristy, and they are 



ARGUMENT OF MR. KETCHUM. 45 

worth at least $3,000 each. That would be $156,000, making a total 
gain from the Smith farm of $180,731. Obtained by donations for the 
Howard University, from private sources, by General Howard's own 
personal efforts, $58,000. Total gains $270,82Q.98. Loss by the fall 
of the hospital, $22,000, and expense of extra work on University 
building, $5,000, and loss by the sand at squares 1054 and 1055, $1,935, 
making a total of $28,935. This deducted from the above leaves 
a net gain of $241,885.98. 

WHO ARE THE ASSAILANTS ? 

Mr. Chairman, I alluded this morning to the fact that no person 
appearing before this committee had acknowledge himself the ori- 
ginator or procurer of these charges. But we are not blind. And I 
think I ought to make some examination of the evidence before you 
with a view to his discovery. 

I say that if any of those who have appeared before the committee 
are at the origin of those charges as prompter and solicitor, we have 
a right to expose them, for the assault is upon a man high in office 
greatly trusted by the government and the country, a soldier who 
has fought bravely in its defense, and a man whose Christian charac- 
ter is dear to his associates and to multitudes of good men through- 
out the land. At an early period of this trial I presented to a witness 
called by the prosecution — a gentleman of some eminence, the Rev. 
Dr. Boynton of this city — a pamphlet, and I showed him pages 2 and 
5. He admitted he wrote them. On page 2 it was complained that 
General Howard in a publiq assembly, where people were gathered 
to contribute as Christians toward the foundation of a church in this 
city, had made an appeal for aid, presenting himself as one for 
whose sake the money should be given. That is the spirit of the 
charge. That extract is copied in the testimony. It was explained 
in evidence that in Mr. Beecher's church in Brooklyn in 1866, at the 
meeting of the Congregational Union, the reverend gentleman who 
was the witness had preached a sermon, and that one of his people, 
General Howard, had been called up and had made an address. In 
fact there was much enthusiasm. Many persons sent up money for 
the object; some was specially marked as a gift to General Howard, 
and Mr. Beecher handed it over in the pulpit saying, "This is for 
you." But it was at once made a gift to the church. " It is all your 
gift to the church," said Mr. Beecher in that undertone of his which 
is allowed to be heard by the whole congregation. General Howard, 
so cordially received, did say to those people: "Well, if you are 
disposed to give me anything, give me a house for the Lord in the 
national capital, where I want to see it established." He was engaged 
in that movement and greatly aided it. But on page 5 it is complained 
that General Howard in the Sunday school had offered rewards to 
the scholars for bringing in other children, without respect to color, 
whereby colored children had been brought into the school without 
consulting the pastor. Why was this treasured up by that witness 
against General Howard and made prominent in that pamphlet which 
he admitted was written by him ? It was a bitter attack upon General 
Howard and was widely distributed over the country. I feel humili- 



46 ARGUMENT OF MR. KETCHUM. 

ated as I refer to it. But the surgeon must look upon what is 
repulsive and so must the advocate. And here is one of those 
repulsive things. Especially I desire to deal considerately with one 
who is a teacher of religion, and I leave him here with the wondering 
words of the Roman poet : 

" Can such anger dwell in heavenly minds ?" 

Now another witness appears in this case, Henry V. Boynton. He 
testified that in a church of which it appears from his testimony his 
father was the minister, something occurred which led him to say to 
General Howard one evening at the close of a meeting, when persons 
of both sexes were present, that if he (General Howard) had two 
arms he would attack him, and that if any of his friends would say 
what he had said he would settle the matter at once. With pain I 
refer to this, and from necessity. " Affliction cometh not from the 
dust, neither doth trouble spring out of the ground." What is on 
these papers and what has been before Congress and this committee 
and before the country came not without a cause. It has cost much 
labor. It must have cost much money. And there has been a bitter- 
ness in it which can not be accounted for except there be something 
besides a desire for the public welfare. Some heart must have been 
set upon revenge. 

Allow me to refer to some things notorious : attacks in the news- 
papers every day, and all over the country. Four of them are corre- 
sponded with by this witness, one by letter every day, and the rest by 
brief dispatch ; and two hundred more by exchanges. That is a great 
power, and he knew that it was a great power. We have heard of it 
on this trial, and I call attention to it here because I think it has 
much significancy. 

In the summer of 1868 two persons witnesses here called at Gen- 
eral Howard's house — Dr. Hiram Barber and Mr. Delano. They sat 
with him holding earnest conversation. There were difficulties in 
the church, and they were of the church, and they set before General 
Howard the power of the press, the fact of his being a public man, 
the value of the friendship and favor of those who wielded the power 
of the press, and the terrors for those who defied that power. They 
set before him the value of winning regard and not provoking enmity. 
They set before him the probability that he would desire public fa- 
vor, and they recommended him to provide for it, and come over 
to their side and to the side of that minister (the Rev. Dr. Boynton) 
whose pamphlet I have referred to — which pamphlet had not yet 
been published. The committee excluded the pamphlet from the 
evidence, all but those two passages, and I do not regret it. There is 
enough of it in to show the animus. There was a father and there 
was a son. Whether, as in the case of the old Carthaginian, the oath 
of eternal enmity was put to the son, or whether the son volunteered 
an oath of eternal enmity, I know not. But that the son was deter- 
mined, whether for causes connected with a father's changed position 
(for it appeared that he quitted the church) or not, to have revenge 
upon those who had been concerned in the dismissal of his father, 
there can be little doubt. These are some of the facts, and here 



ARGUMENT OF MR. KETCHUM. 4* 

) 

are some of the results. General H. V. Boynton, was summoned 
here as a witness the first week, and from day to day he was in 
the corridor. And sometimes when the committee was not in 
session he was inside. He was in full concert with the counsel and 
the honorable gentleman who introduced the resolution on which 
this inquiry was based. He was waiting at the door to catch the 
witnesses as they entered or retired and to gather what he could from 
them, and to send it off, not honestly, but garbled and falsified. 

The Chairman. Do you think it necessary to go into this matter of 
conspiracy ? 

Mr. Ketchum. I have not a particle of animosity against this man, 
and yet so great has been the wrong perpetrated by him, so constant 
his assault upon my friend, this accused public officer, so widespread 
the effects of them, that if I should let this only opportunity pass 
of presenting bis conduct before the committee, and so before the 
House and the country, I should feel that I greatly failed in my 
duty. Bat the moment the chair interposes I will suspend. 

Mr. Tyner. I think, Mr. Chairman, that if Mr. Ketchum thinks it 
necessary in the line of his duty to examine here into the conduct 
and the spirit of these witnesses with a view to show the origin of 
these charges he has a legal right to do so. 

Mr. Hoar. One of the witnesses has testified to important matter 
obtained by him in conversation with General Howard, and I think 
it clear the counsel has a right to proceed — of course not intimating 
how the argument may affect the committee. 

The Chairman. Confine it as closely as possible to what came 
before the committee. 

Mr. Ketchum. I will do so.\ You recollect Dr. Barber and his testi- 
mony. He was not friendly. Dr. Barber on the first day told us, 
what would certainly impress the mind of a hearer, that the Howard 
University had given to General Howard an acre of ground. I asked 
General Boynton whether he had obtained on the first day a report 
of the testimony of Dr. Barber given that day, and he was uncertain. 
I did not get a direct answer. But I think he soon perceived my 
object, and then he said that on the first day of his testimony Dr. 
Barber had refused to tell him what it was. I understood very well 
why he said that. The papers over the country had published it as a 
fact that General Howard had taken as a gift an acre of ground 
purchased just before with public money for the Howard University, 
and thus had put $1,000 into his pocket out of those public funds. 
But the next day it appeared in evidence, after all the difficulties 
of Dr. Barber about identifying the book of records of Howard 
University containing the minutes he had drafted — it appeared from 
the original minutes in his own handwriting that it was not so, but 
that General Howard had declined the gift, and the witness was 
brought to the recollection of that. 

The second day of Dr. Barber's testifying I took care to ask him 
whether he had informed any one what his testimony was on the first 
day. He said, " Yes," he had told his wife. "Anybody else ?" " Yes, 
I told Mr. Stevens." "Anybody else ?" " Yes, General Boynton." So 
we had it on the 21st of April that Dr. Barber on the day before, the 
20th of April, had told General Boynton what he had testified. But 



48 ARGUMENT OF MR. KETCHUM. 

weeks after, when General Boynton testified, lie became quite clear 
in his recollection (after some obscurity) that Dr. Barber did not tell 
him on the first day what he had testified, and he came to remember 
it (as such witnesses commonly do upon pressure) by a fact that came 
to his mind, and that was that Dr. Barber explicitly declared he 
would not tell his testimony of that day! But we know the contrary 
of this. So hard is it in this world to circumvent truth. 

But then to help General Boynton's recollection I got the Cin- 
cinnati Gazette of the 21st of April, and found that on the 20th of 
April, when General Boynton said Dr. Barber had not told him 
what his testimony was, he (Boynton) had telegraphed to the Cin- 
cinnati Gazette that Dr. Barber had testified the University had 
given an acre of groundto General Howard, and then General Boyn- 
ton, seeing this, acknowledged it. 

I asked him if he had acted as clerk to Mr. Wood in this investi- 
gation, and he said he had not. I asked him if he had not served 
as clerk for Mr. Wood in getting papers from the Treasury files, but 
he denied it. At length, upon close inquiry, he said that he had gone 
to the Treasury Department when Mr. Wood could not go, and had 
taken an order or request from Mr. Wood to get a paper he was to 
testify to, and had copied it and brought it away to Mr. Wood. 

Now a fair-minded witness who corresponds with newspapers would 
not be testifying so. He would understand the meaning of language 
better. This witness denied the name but he proved the character. 

He denied that he had iurnished any briefs or drafts of interroga- 
tories to be used on this trial. Yet he admitted, after much pressure, 
that he had written papers and given them to Mr. Wood, who had 
brought them here for use. That is not a fair witness. That is not 
a witness on whose testimony a man like General Howard should be 
impeached. He denied that he was the originator of these charges 
or the prompter of them. But he spends his time in writing for the 
papers against him : and he told Mr. Wood he had written to the 
Cincinnati Gazette all the facts about General Howard, and that if 
Mr. Wood's charges were in accordance with those letters he felt 
bound, as a public man who had made them public property, to 
supply the proofs to sustain them. 

Now was he honest in denying that he was the prompter? If he 
was not, this trial leaves utter darkness upon this subject. But light 
streams through the openings — openings that all the art and all the 
conscience, such as it is, of this witness can not close. Here ii a man 
who tries to hide himself. He says: 

" Nay, never shake those gory locks at me ; 
Thou canst not say I did it." 

Poor refuge of the guilty — always sought, but always vainly. 

Did you notice, Mr. Chairman, how, when I tried to find whether 
he had not said that he would get an investigating committee out of 
this Congress, and if not out of this Congress then out of the next — 
did you notice how he said at last, after much deliberation, " Well, if 
you put it in that shape, I say no." Was that the way an honest wit- 
ness would have spoken? Wasn't it the way of a man who was try- 
ing to pacify his conscience, such as it was, by catching at some form 



ARGUMENT OF MR. KETCHUM. 49 

of words, or lack of words somewhere, by which he could make an 
answer to conceal the truth? 

Mr. Chairman, an honorable man would have shrunk from doing 
another thing this witness did. General Howard was willing to con- 
verse with him. He had been under the pastorate of his father, and 
there could be conversation without animosity. But observe that 
after the subject was disposed of which General Howard introduced, 
that is, the incorrectness of some newspaper report which had been 
ascribed to General Boynton, he said, "Now, General Howard, as we 
are talking in a friendly way, let me ask you a question on another 
subject." And here, in so friendly a way, he inquires about some 
other things. They were things he had before reported, and which 
he has since brought into these charges. 

But why did Boynton open this ? It was that he might say there 
was a conversation on the subject between them. Then he could 
trust to his own heart and pen to shape the language for the injury 
of the man he was pursuing. Would any gentleman do that ? Would 
any one fit to be a public teacher and guide, having a sense of honor 
and a mind to do good, do that? It was a private conversation, 
where no thought of publication was entertained by General Howard. 
Suppose General Boynton had said, " General Howard, sit down ; I 
wish to draw out from you now something to make use of to your 
injury. I wield that power of the press Dr. Barber set before you a 
while ago, and as you did not fall in with the plan for creating you 
as a public man, I intend to destroy you soon, and you will, if you 
please, just supply me with some weapons ; and I can get all I need if 
you only give me a chance to say we talked together on this subject." 
Would General Howard have been "pleased" to afford General 
Boynton that opportunity ? Not readily. But if that was General 
Boynton's purpose he ought to have said so. On the other hand, if 
it was not his purpose at that time he should never have brought 
that private conversation here. But in his enmity he has come 
before this committee, and taking his part in this pursuit he has 
come to supply out of the treasury of his heart and tongue any lack 
of testimony. That labels the man. Yet he came here on the 
second day to testify, and volunteered at the beginning to correct 
something he said the day before "in justice to General Howard." 
We extend the hand, not to accept but to reject his proffered justice. 
We have heard of Joab's salutation of Abner, and of what attended it. 

But what occurred here in your presence, Mr. Chairman? Gen- 
eral Boynton was asked by one of your committee whether he 
had obtained from any of the parties or counsel here, bound 
to secrecy, any of the matters of the trial, about which he had 
been sending reports to the newspapers. He said yes. From 
whom? From General Howard and Mr. Ketchum, and from Mr. 
Bradley and Mr. Wood. I had exchanged no word with him, and so 
noted on paper to the member. So he was asked when Mr. Ketchum 
had told him anything, and he answered : Not Mr. Ketchum himself, 
but those to whom he talked, had told him. When pressed to name 
them he broke down and said he could not. 

Then as to Mr. Wood and Mr. Bradley. " Had he been present in 
Mr. Bradley's office when he and his associate counsel were talking 

4 



50 ARGUMENT OF MR. KETCHUM. 

with other witnesses ? " He said no, but when they were talking with 
each other. "But didn't Mr. Bradley request him to leave the 
room ?" Yes, he did, but it was impossible for him not to hear por- 
tions of what was said. "But did he consider it honorable to 
publish what he got in that way ?" Note his answer. " I did not 
say I published it. What I heard I used to explain in my own 
mind information obtained from witnesses." 

But an honorable man would have instinctively answered, " I never 
did publish it !" Because such a man never could have done so. 

Then another question, " But you heard it when you ought not to 
hear it, and then did make use of such information ?" He answers, 
" I do not know that I made use of such information, except as I 
said, to explain," &c. 

He does not know that he made use of that information ! He does 
not venture to say he did not use it ; and with such a man before me 
I see as clearly that he used it as I see the character of the man. 

We repudiate his testimony. It is disingenuous. General Howard 
would readily repeat here what he said in that conversation ; but he 
would differ materially from the witness in his narration of it. 

This same General Boynton visited the University grounds and told 
the committee of what he had seen. He had spent two hours in look- 
ing at the cracks in the University walls, and in counting the places 
where new material was put in. There were twelve different cracks 
and there were three hundred places mended by putting in new ma- 
terial. He went over the ground and looked at the ruins of the hos- 
pital and he had spent four hours at the navy yard in witnessing the 
experiments of Major King with the Hardee committee, which he de- 
scribed with great fluency, giving exactly the relative strength of all 
the different materials down to chalk, and declaring that chalk was 
stronger than American building-block. He said he had a "fixed 
opinion," and it was that the building-block was worthless. He 
had utterly condemned the University building in his newspaper 
reports, and so in all his testimony here he did, and he said 
that nothing would satisfy him to the contrary, his opinion was 
so fixed. But in the four walls of the University building there 
are more than twenty-five thousand superficial feet, without including 
projections and returns, and the three hundred blocks, if renewed, 
would make but one hundred superficial feet, the two hundred and 
fiftieth part of the whole ; and yet because he saw these cracks and 
these mendings he condemned the whole building. 

Yet Mr. George Cook, a true expert, a man of open, honest coun- 
tenance, the contractor for the extra work on the University, said this 
penknife blade of mine could not be inserted into one of those 
cracks. 

A large portion of this mending was on the north side, where 
there had been exposure to frost, and scaling in consequence. It 
was local and not general. Yet here is a witness, a public instructor 
and guide, determined to blast this building and sacrifice the 
$150,000 it cost without once going inside to see if it might not 
after all be safe ; not willing even to inquire of Mr. Rumsey, the 
builder, his father's friend, whether it could not be safely used. 

General Boynton (educated as he said he was) did not know ex- 



ARGUMENT OF MR. KETCHUM. 51 

actly what the water table was. He did not know, either, what to 
call the raised margins of a panel. I do not blame any one for not 
knowing what they are called, but when a man claims to be a civil 
engineer and an expert on building materials and can not tell such 
things, I do blame him because he shows himself ignorant where 
he claimed to have knowledge, and that to injure one toward whom 
he was hostile. He did not know that between the second and third 
stories heavy panels took the place of the common building-blocks, 
although his two hours' examination of the cracks made him sure 
they ran from top to bottom through the wall in the line of the 
windows. He did not know whether that wall would carry on 
it another wall like itself and as high without crushing, though he 
seemed disposed to say it would not. Yet Major King, a really 
scientific man, knows and says that it would carry the weight of 
three other walls just like itself without crushing. That is the testi- 
mony of Major King, after conducting these experiments at the 
navy yard. 

General Boynton said on appearing the second day, as already 
alluded to, that he wished " injustice to General Howard" to correct a, 
part of his testimony the day before, about the General's having said in 
conversation with him that he could lend money to the church out of 
the Retained Bounty fund. He thought now he might have been 
mistaken, and that he said it was out of some other bureau fund. 

Perhaps he had discovered (although two or three of his friends 
had been swearing to the same thing) that it was impossible, because 
the Retained Bounty fund was never used for educational purposes, 
and as other moneys were, he saw a good time to correct himself and 
escape into a broader field where he could be more plausible. 
Besides, he began to feel (if he had not felt before) that a shade of 
doubt might pass over the minds of the Committee as to his entire 
impartiality and disinterestedness as a witness. Here, therefore, he 
could put his amendment to two good uses by opening the morning's 
work with something " in justice to General Howard." 

It would have been an honest act on his part if he had come in 
here on the second day and made some atonement for the persistent 
untruth with which he had plied the newspapers through so many 
days, which any one could see, who understood anything of the case, 
was designed to produce impressions on the public mind never to be 
effaced. That would have been justice to General Howard. 

There is another thing to which I must call attention. Judge 
Coons was cited here from Tennessee to prove bounty frauds. He came 
before the Committee, and at the public expense — an expense amount- 
ing to some hundreds of dollars — and with the expectation on the part 
of the prosecution that his' testimony would injure General Howard. 
But they had found in the bureau his report on the intended bounty 
frauds, and when Judge Coons entered the room they were disposed 
to dismiss him without examination. The report of Judge Coons 
will show that he charges one General Burbridge with coming to him 
and proposing to make $400,000 out of the colored soldiers of 
Tennessee and Kentucky, upon a plan which he said had the approval 
of the bureau. He proposed making some arrangement by which 
for a small sum the rights of the soldier should be bought, and 



52 ARGUMENT OF MR. KETCHUM. 

assignments of them taken, and that thirty per cent, should go to 
him (Judge Coons) for helping along the plan as an officer of the 
bureau. It was a good chance, he said, to make money. Judge Coons 
listened to him all through. He allowed General Burbridge to tell 
his story, and then, like an honest man, he said no. It was just the 
same with General Runkle. General Burbridge and his associates 
had raised $10,000 for a fund to carry on the enterprise and their 
purposes were foiled. 

Now, Mr. Chairman, the men who got up the charges knew all 
this. They had called in Judge Coons' report and had examined it. 
My much-respected opponent, Mr. Bradley, who had been serving 
here had looked into that report and he understood its purport and 
effect. 

Mr. Burbridge, the witness, came here and I made no objection to 
his testimony, but the committee ruled out the interrogatory of the 
prosecution. 

The Hon. Mr. Wood then offered to prove by this witness that 
General Runkle and Judge Coons were engaged in a conspiracy for 
committing bounty frauds, and that General Howard knew it. 

He was required to prove, first, that knowledge of General Howard, 
but declined to do so, and put,his offer on the record to stand there. 

The originators of these charges are responsible for the wrong thus 
done to General Howard. They study the case outside. They plan, 
and plot, and prescribe. They sent away without examination the 
honest witness who detected and defeated the conspiracy for commit- 
ting the bounty frauds, and brought in one of the conspirators with 
an offer to prove by him what they knew very well they could not 
prove. 

You recollect how this witness was received by the prosecution 
that called him. He was asked his occupation ; he said, after a pause, 
" Well, call me a speculator ; " and after another pause he added — 
" and a distiller." Then the Hon. Mr. Wood said, " We don't think in 
New York that such people have a very high character." It was a 
rebuff not usually given by an advocate to his own witness. 

After that announcement of the estimation in which their witness 
was held, and after dismissing Judge Coons as they did it was a 
wrong to " offer to prove by this witness that there was a conspiracy 
with Judge Coons and General Runkle, bureau officers in Tennessee 
and Kentucky, with the knowledge of General Howard, to commit 
bounty frauds," and those men are responsible for it who planned 
and have carried on this prosecution. Some may be deceived by the 
show of that offer upon the record in the absence of testimony that 
would have shown it utterly without foundation. 

Mr. Hoar here read from the minutes what took place on that sub- 
ject, as follows: 

Extract from proceedings of committee, June 8, 1870: 

Mr. Burbridge. I never had any conversation or communication 
with General Howard, except that which has been introduced here 
to-day. 

Mr. Wood. I offer to prove by this witness that the agents of the 



ARGUMENT OF MR. KETCHUM. 53 

bureau, General Runkle and Mr. Coons, were particeps criminis in 
purchasing these claims at a ruinous rate of discount as agents of the 
bureau, one of them having $10,000 in money for that purpose ; and 
that General Howard was made acquainted with the facts, but not 
by this witness. 

Mr. Hoar. I move that Mr. Wood be at liberty to proceed to prove 
that knowledge of the facts which he states was brought home to 
General Howard, and that when he has proved that General Howard 
had knowledge of them he may then prove the circumstances to 
which he refers. 

Mr. McNeely. I move as an amendment that Mr. Wood be at 
liberty to prove the fact which he has stated, and that he then be at 
liberty to prove that it came to the knowledge of General Howard. 

Mr. McNeely's amendment was rejected; yeas 2, nays 4. 

Mr. Hoar's motion was agreed to ; yeas 4, nays 2. 

Mr. Wood. I can only prove the fact by this witness that this 
thing did occur, and if I am not permitted to prove that fact I have 
no further questions to ask him. 

Mr. Tyner. I move that the chairman of the committee be 
directed to subpoena this witness again as soon as the fact of Gen- 
eral Howard's knowledge has been proven by Mr. Wood. Agreed to. 

Mr. Ketchum. I thank Mr. Hoar for this reference, it makes very 
plain what it was my object to show. 

At this time I am constrained to sayjfsomething of that power of 
the press which Dr. Barber was sent to expatiate upon at the house 
of General Howard. 

That power exercised for the public welfare is a good gift of 
Providence, but employed for the indulgence of personal malice and 
revenge it becomes a curse. 

Dr. Barber and his prompters were mistaken. A common man 
with some smartness may happen to reach a place from which he 
can correspond regularly with several newspapers and gain access 
through affiliation to several hundred more, and he may for a while 
fill the air with " flying rumors and wandering fames and reports," may 
daily reach with pointed paragraphs a great many minds and poison 
public opinion, and defame personal character, and hinder important 
enterprises, but the end is near and the punishment condign. Truth 
rises steadily through all the debris of malice and falsehood that 
were to smother and destroy it, and lifting its head into the open air 
looks down upon the falsehood and it perishes. 

The scene shifters amuse with their flashes of powder for lightning 
and rolling cannon-balls for thunder, but when they imagine them- 
selves gods and begin to throw squibs and pieces of iron among the 
audience they are promptly expelled and punished. Then all men 
see what pigmies besmeared with the grease and lampblack of their 
vocation the thunderers were. 

It will not be tolerated that men who command little respect 
in society, who delight in mischief and indulge the basest passions 
under the pretext of maintaining the public welfare, shall go on 
successfully in their wickedness. 

I honor General Howard for treating the solicitations of Dr. Barber 



54 ARGUMENT OF MR. KETCHUM. 

as he did. His response was like that of Joseph to his tempter — of 
Daniel to his persecutors. The disciple of his Master, he instinctively 
followed His example. He resisted the devil. But he who resists 
has the promise never broken, that the devil shall flee from 
him. 

The persecution of this public servant bears resemblance to that 
which long since pursued another. A boy out of college, he made 
speeches for independence. Entering the army he was soon called to 
the side of the commander-in-chief and so went through the war of 
the Revolution. He rendered great services as a soldier ; and then 
as a citizen, in devising and establishing the constitution ; and after- 
ward as a member of the cabinet, in laying the foundations of adminis- 
tration of the government, and of industry and prosperity among the 
people — foundations that now lie at the base of the vast structure his 
prescience contemplated and which we after three generations behold. 
He possessed abilities that, employed for his own personal advantage, 
might have won for him any wealth he could desire, yet he devoted 
himself to his country and died without estate. 

It was Hamilton, the friend of Washington, and his Secretary of 
the Treasury, that was charged with the abuse of his trust by fraudu- 
lent uses of the public money. And at last he was aroused to answer 
his assailants, and at the opening he said : " Lies often detected and 
refuted are still revived and repeated in the hope that the refuta- 
tion may have been forgotten, or that the frequency and boldness of 
accusation may supply the place of truth and proof." Strong words, 
that show human nature to have been at the that period very much 
like what it is now. What Hamilton did in his place in the Treasury 
for his country, Howard has done in the Freedmen's Bureau for the 
colored people liberated by the war, and for the nation of which they 
are so important a part. 

This work has been a triumph, and it is very natural that its author 
should meet with assaults from enemies. It was said by Edmund 
Burke— that great man whose sentences will often supply maxims for 
our instruction and comfort in the perplexities and sorrows of our 
human affairs — that " it is in the nature and constitution of things that 
calumny and abuse must be an essential part of triumph." And the 
history of the Freedmen's Bureau verifies it. 

THE MAN REQUIRED. 

Mr. Chairman, the work reviewed before you required at its head 
a man of wisdom, of courage, of experience, with knowledge of the 
southern country and its peoj)le ; an army officer and one who would 
regard the woes and the wants of the freedmen and refugees and 
carefully provide for them. It wanted a man having the confidence 
of benevolent and Christian people so as to win their cooperation, 
which was of so great value that the bureau could not have succeeded 
without it. Aid came through the churches and Sunday schools, 
and the aggregate was large. It wanted a man of integrity, honestly 
to apply the large sum of money intrusted to him with such wide 
discretion to the objects the nation had in view. 

It required the ability of a statesman also, providing not only for 



ARGUMENT OP MR. KETCHUM. 55 

the present but for the future, establishing education and labor so 
that the . disabilities of the colored people-should be removed and 
their capacities made available to the country of which they were 
becoming citizens. * 

Now, for this Mr. Lincoln selected General Howard, and he was 
called to it by Mr. Lincoln's successor through Mr. Stanton, his 
Secretary of War. General Howard has performed the service, and 
for the manner of it he deserves well of his country. There is nothing 
that shows him to have been either negligent or unjust. And 
this I am well convinced you will find and report, and more : — that this 
man who gave his right arm to his country and ever held his life at 
her service — who at her call gave all his powers, physical, mental, and 
moral to the organization and development of a plan for the elevation 
and advancement of her freed people, distinguishing her among the 
nations of the earth, came not hither " upon the oath and presentment 
of men of honest condition," but upon "flying rumors and wandering 
fames and reports," the creations of malice and the accepted tools ot 
political hostility and design ; — that this public officer, whom enemies 
seeking concealment have endeavored to destroy, deserves not the 
censure of his country, but her love and praise. 



LB My '13 



